Uzumaki's Wrath
by gregorybryce9
Summary: In another time and place, the Uzumakis fell into ruin after the invasion of their homeland. But this was not that time nor place. In this world, the Uzumakis repelled the invasion force and showed why they were feared by others. But somehow, this spells trouble for Konoha. With love lost between the two villages, where does our resident Uzumaki Naruto stand? Read and find out.
1. Chapter 1

**Okay, before you dive into this fanfiction, allow me to explain to you the differences between this world and that of the canon. These changes you will see include:**

 **1)The Uzumaki clan and the Senju clan did not ally with one another. They will remain the same as they did during the Warring Clans era, i.e. neutral.**

 **2)Uzushiogakure was able to repel the attack on their homeland, therefore are still around in this day and age of the fanfiction.**

 **3)Naruto is not the son of Minato nor Kushina, but he is still an Uzumaki. As I said before the Uzumakis are still around at this point.**

 **4)There is no Akatsuki, at least, not playing the role of an evil organization. This is due to the fact that Uzushiogakure was never wiped out so Nagato was not orphaned and he grew up rather happily with his parents.**

 **5) Nagato's rinnegan was naturally awaken, not given to him by Madara. This is done for the sake of the plot.**

 **And finally 6) I'm not entirely sure if the rinnegan is hereditary seeing as the sage's son didn't wield the rinnegan but in this fanfiction, it is. Again, it is for the sake of the plot.**

 **You will see all the other changes done to the canon in due time. Now with that out of the way, let's go down to business.**

* * *

It was just another morning for most persons living within the high walls of Konoha, but deep with the Hokage's tower, a special meeting was taking place. All of the individuals huddled in the Jonin Hall knew why they were here. It was only a formality for them to gather for the meeting, having already been informed of the events about to take place in the village in one week's time. The Chunin Exams. A bi-annual event that invites all villages to pool their genins together in order to prove if they are ready to take up the rank of a chunin. It was an important event, as it gave most villages a chance to boost their standings within the shinobi world and often times are used to display up-and-coming ninjas to possible new clients. Which, in turn, boosted the villages funding. This event was not to be taken lightly. This was why this special meeting was called. Active jonin senseis were requested to make an appearance and to state whether or not they believed that their students were ready to take on the challenge of the Chunin Exams.

The man who had called the meeting to order sat behind his oak desk. Hands interlocked beneath his chin, his cerulean gaze swept across the room, observing each individual before flickering on to the next one down the long line. He smiled at the ninjas under his command, his sun-kissed hair ruffling slightly as he shook his head at the shit-eating grin of one of his jonin, a man clad in green spandex. The man in question wore the basic jonin uniform of the Leaf Village, blue shinobi trousers matched by a pair of blue, long-sleeved shirt with a stylish leaf stitched at the shoulder area. Over this, he wore a flak vest and his signature jacket, white in nature with red flame motif at the tail. This man was none other than Minato Namikaze, S-ranked shinobi and the Fourth Hokage of Konoha. Before him stood a myriad of different ninjas, some short while some tall. Others were slim while a number were fat. But what all of these men and women alike shared in common was the undying love they had for this village. They possessed the Will of Fire, and like their predecessors before them, had taken up the mantle of passing it down to the future generation. And he felt it was an honour to lead them all into that era.

Believing the time for nostalgia had passed, Minato cleared his throat and addressed the crowd before him. His tone was sharp and demanded the attention of all those in listening vicinity. "You all know why you've been gathered here today," he started and paused, before continuing, "The Chunin Exams. As you all should know the Chunin Exams will be commencing in a week's time and it is Konoha's turn to host the exams. As the host village and the strongest of the five great villages, we are expected to make and good showing and with the numbers we are expecting this year, I hope for nothing less." He allowed the jonin senseis a few moments to digest everything he had just told them. He knew that, without a doubt, these exams would be the biggest to ever occur up to this point. Which was why he, alongside the members of the council, had made a notion at the last meeting concerning the exams. Now, he had to explain it to the ones involved. "With this in mind, I am bypassing protocol and making it an order that all rookie teams are to be immediately nominated for the Chunin Exams,"

The uproar at his announcement was expected. Many of the jonins looked at the Fourth Hokage incredulously. Had the man lost his marbles? The Chunin Exams were highly dangerous events and many had died in the process of taking the exams. Despite the fact that the genins in question included the likes of Sasuke Uchiha, prodigy of the Uchiha clan and hailed as the second coming of Itachi, not to the mention the Hokage's own chiildren. But the fact of the matter was that they were still genins fresh out of the Academy and had very little experience in life and death situations. No amount of skill or promise can save you if you freeze up in the middle of a fight. So it was expected that many had been opposed to the Hokage's orders. And none were more against than one Iruka Umino, one of the few chunins that were allowed to sit in on this meeting. The man had brown hair caught into a ponytail and a scar that ran across the bridge of his nose. His coal black eyes were wide in surprise at the Hokage's order, believing them to be unheard of.

"Forgive me Hokage-sama, but I strongly suggest that this order to not be carried out. While I agree that these kids have the promise to become shinobis that the village can be proud of, I also believe that they are not ready for these exams. I've taught this particular set of shinobi Hokage-sama, and I'm confident in saying that they will be ready for the exams in a year or two, but not right now," Iruka ended with a slight bow, having said his piece in the matter at hand. He had been with these kids since they had entered the Academy walls, and watched them grow, play and learn together so he had inevitable gotten attached to the group many had started to call the 'Rookie 12'. He was a strong believer in the Third's way of thinking that the children were the future of the village, and that it was up to the previous generation to pass unto them the Will of Fire, the same will that founded the hidden village.

"I understand your concerns Iruka-san, but my order still stands. Konoha's standing as the strongest among the other villages have been shaky even since the Kyuubi's attack twelve years ago. As much as I would hate to admit it, we've yet to fully recover the manpower that we had all those years ago and this fact is bringing our status into question. Clients will begin to offer jobs that would normally come to us and give them to other villages, and this must not happen. This years set of graduating genins are filled with several clan heirs and heiresses alike, and includes prodigies our village hasn't produced in many years. As much as it pains me to do this, but for the better of Konoha, Teams 7,8,10 and 11 are all expected to be prepped and ready for the upcoming exams," Minato explained to the concerned chunin. Personally, Minato respected the man. He understood what Konoha stood for. But there were times when the man was still naive, in a sense. Despite its sunny and idealistic exterior, the Village Hidden in the Leaves was still a shinobi village. There were times when decisions had to be made that many would not agree with, and this was such an example. Turning to the respective jonin senseis of the team he had mentioned and had received a quick nod in response to his orders. Good, at least he didn't have to force their hands, he thought.

"Now, with that out of the way, we have to deal with the matter of security. With the exams soon to begin, we will be expecting many arrivals from the other villages. So far, we have confirmed teams form Sand, Cloud, Mist, Stone, Sound, Rain, Waterfall, Grass and ... from the Village Hidden by the Whirling Tides," Minato concluded, with a slight grimace at the name of the last participating village. It was no secret that there was no love between the two villages, something that dated back to the times of the First Hokage, and with he himself adding fuel to the tensions to a decision he had made decades ago, both villages had no form of communication between the two. And by the shocked look on the faces of all those around him, they had the same reactions he had when he had received their confirmation of participation.

"A-Are you sure, sensei?" His last remaining student asked with a raised brow, his other being hidden by the face mask he wore. Minato nodded at his question, which led to his brow arching even higher. "But, what about... you know. Does she know about- "

"No, she doesn't," Minato cut off his student's question, already expecting Kakashi's question. "At least, not yet."

And Minato knew that the minute _she_ heard about the village sending a team to the chunin exams, it would cause to a lot of complications in the future.

For now though, he would try his best to keep _her_ away from the team of Uzumakis.

* * *

"Come on already, we have to go meet with the others," a feminine voice called out in a small ramen shop. The speaker, a girl with the most vibrant shade of red hair tapped her feet impatiently as she waited for whoever it was to finish whatever it was they were doing. Dressed in a light blue high-collared sleeveless blouse with a pair of black bike shorts stooping right above the knee. Her forehead protector was proudly on display, trapping the chin length bangs that framed the side of her face. This girl was known as Mito Namikaze, the second-born daughter of the Fourth Hokage and was a recently promoted genin fresh from the Academy, making up one-third of Team 11.

"Mito is right, we're already late as is, we wouldn't want to be later," a boy piped up from beside. He had his arms folded across his chest and a slight frown on his face. Brown short-cropped hair spilled over onto his headband, slightly obscuring the leaf's insignia on his own forehead protector. The boy wore a dark grey shirt with a pair of black shin-length trousers finished off by black sandals reaching his ankles. This boy was Kenji - no last name - a genin of the Leaf and alongside Mito Namikaze, made up two-thirds of Team 11.

The last member of the team and undoubtedly the reason why his teammates were late was none other than Nawaki Namikaze, the oldest of the . The boy was a few inches shorter than his sibling - something she never made him forget for a moment - and had a messy mop of spiky blond hair, similar to his father. He wore a orange jacket with blue trimmings, left open to reveal a black shirt. He finished the look off with a pair of black pants and black sandals. Currently, the boy was leaning over a bowl of ramen and loud slurping sounds gave away his actions. Lifting the bowl to his head, the boy proceeded to chug the remaining broth left from his meal, slamming the bowl back on the counter and grinning like a buffoon. "No worries nee-chan, Yamato-sensei won't mind us being a little late," the boy stopped before remembering that this was the same Yamato-sensei that had often times scared him half to death with that creepy face he could make. Feeling a cold shiver run up and down the length of his spine, the boy reached into his pocket, paying the amount he owed for the ramen before sprinting off to the direction their sensei had told the two they should meet up, leaving a large trail of dust in his wake.

"Idiot," his younger sister deadpanned, before running after her brother, a grumbling Kenji astutely following behind.

Nawaki was a man on a mission. A mission to not piss off his jonin sensei. From what his father had told him, Yamato was a former ANBU operative, and through ways his father had clamped up about, could wield the Mokuton bloodline which had made the First Hokage into an almost god-like opponent. But it wasn't this bloodline that had made Yamato a man to be feared in Nawaki's opinion. No, not one bit. Nawaki believed that honour belonged to that downright scary face his sensei was prone to make whenever he was angry. And with Nawaki's excellent track record for annoying the hell out of someone within the first ten minutes of meeting them, he had been on the receiving end of this face far too many times than he would've like.

And he wasn't planning on seeing that face again.

That was why, in his haste, he had not seen the kunoichi in his way until he had already slammed into her.

Having fallen flat on his ass, Nawaki slowly got back to his feet with a low groan. Whoever it was he had ran into was hard-headed, that was a fact. "Hey, sorry about that-"

"Watch where you're going moron!" the person shouted before the boy get out an apology. Now, while Nawaki had gotten his father's looks, he hadn't received his personality. No, that honour belonged to his mother, Kushina Uzumaki. Everyone in Konoha knew who this woman was. You'd have to be living under a rock to not know the Red-Hot Habanero of Konoha and her vicious temper. So when her son had developed a temper that rivaled his mother, it was expected that the boy would react to hostility with more hostility.

"Who did the hell do you think you're calling a moron, stupid-face!"he shouted back.

"HA! _'Stupid-face',_ is that the best you got ass-wipe?!" the voice - now he noted was distinctively feminine - mocked his inability to have thought of a more demeaning comeback at her initial taunt. He cerulean gaze narrowed in anger as he observed the rude girl he had bumped into. The first thing he noticed was the crimson hair - just like his mother and sisters - that flowed down to her waist. Sharp hazels eyes stared back at him condescendingly. The kunoichi - he had identified her as one based on the headband she wore which, strangely enough, had a spiral like his mother's clan symbol - was dressed in a tan tunic and black biker shorts.

"Shut up, flat-chest!"

Suddenly, the girl was right in his face, gripping the front of his black shirt in her fists and fury roared to life within the depths of her eyes. Offhandedly, Nawaki compared her reaction to his name-calling to his mother's reaction to when someone would call her Tomato-face, and gulped in fear, knowing that if this girl had a temper even half as explosive as his mother, he was deep shit.

"You wanna run that by me again, _short-stack,_ " she snarled as she clenched her other hand into a fist, daring the midget (HEY!) to repeat what he had called her. By now, most men would swallow their pride and take the manly way out. Meaning apologize and wimp their way out knowing the instinctive rule they had learned since birth, angry women were dangerous women. But this rule did not apply to Nawaki. No sirree! He was half-Uzumaki, the clan known for their recklessness and he wouldn't dare back down from a challenge. So with no sense of self-preservation, he soldiered on. Grabbing the girl by the front of her tunic, he clashed his forehead against hers and many witnesses would swear they saw electric sparks between the two's gaze.

"You heard me perfectly clear, _pettanko,_ " he snarled back with equal ferocity. He had absolutely no idea who this girl was and why she was here but no one was gonna come into his village and pick a fight with him. Not without getting their ass kicked of course. Both twelve year-olds readied themselves for the fight that was undoubtedly about to begin. Or least was about to begin if it weren't for the intervention of the remaining members of Team 11.

Mito burst onto the scene with Kenji trailing behind only to see her brother in a glaring contest with a girl his age. With only a glance, she could already tell that both were hot-tempered persons (not that she was one to judge) and wouldn't back down until the other apologized, something she also could tell was highly unlikely. This left her with one of two options. One, join her brother and help him fight a foreign kunoichi which could lead to an international incident. Or two, be the voice of reason between two temperamental individuals (something she had come accustomed to over the years). Sighing, she stepped between the two and broke them apart, a quick scolding off the tip of her lips.

"Break it apart you two, you're drawing attention to yourselves!" she began, and a quick look around showed them that a large circle was being formed by passer-byes. "Now, would one of you like to explain to me what the hell is going on here?" she asked the two. Her brother ducked his head in embarrassment while the foreign kunoichi scoffed and turned her head to side, though Mito saw the faintest of blushes on her cheeks. Probably embarrassed, Mito concluded. "Well, will someone explain this to me?" She asked again, "I'm waiting!"

"As am I," a voice said, catching all the gathered genins off-guard. Spinning their head to the direction, they were greeted to the sight of boy about the same age as them, standing on the top of a fence, looking down on them. Blood red hair was matted down and fell into his eyes, hiding both from view. His skin was pale, reminding both genins of Konoha of a comrade of theirs named Sai. Nothing more could be deduced about his physical figures due to the crimson cloak he wore, effectively disguising any distinctive features he might have had. At his appearance, the potty-mouth kunoichi ducked her head in an effort her full-blown blush and failed miserably. "So Tayuya... are you going to explain to me why only after a few hours of arriving I find you in an altercation with local shinobis?" he asked neutrally.

"N-Naruto-kun, I can explain," the hard-headed kunoichi - now identified as Tayuya - answered back with a stutter that contradicted her previous behaviour. She tried to lock gazes with the boy but failed utterly when she looked away with a blush. "Y-You see... um... the thing is..." She tried to explain her case before another voice called out, revealing that there was someone else. This time it was a girl walking towards them from behind. Like the other two of her comrades, she too had red hair but unlike her other teammates she had crimson eyes to match. Her hair was style in an unusual manner, with the right side kept short and spike and the left straight and long. She placed a hand on her hips and tilted her head slightly, a smirk on her lips. The girl had on a long-sleeved lavender uniform, unbuttoned to expose her navel. Black biker shorts led to thigh-high stockings and black sandals.

"Don't waste your time with her Naruto-kun. She's always causing trouble for us," the girl mocked, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose. Her smirk grew wider when she saw that Tayuya had clenched her fists and was barely restraining herself from attacking her outright. Hell, she knew that the only reason why Tayuya had yet to charge at her was because Naruto was standing right there., and both girls knew that Naruto hated when comrades fought against one another. And both girls wanted to do whatever it was that could put them in his good graces.

"Karin!" Naruto suddenly spoke up, causing the girl to stiffen, "Now is not the time for this." he told the girl and she nodded her head rapidly to his demand. Turning away from his first teammate, he turned to the other who was giving Karin a smug grin. _Can't these two just get along,_ he thought exasperatedly. "Tayuya... apologize,"

"Eh? Why do I have to apologize to the midget?!" Tayuya shouted out angrily before flinching as the boy jumped - now wait, he _levitated_ \- off the top of the fence and landed in front of her. He took a step forward and she took one back before surrendering to his demands. "S-Sure t-thing Naruto-kun," she spun away from Naruto's harsh glare (though none of them could see it due to his hair, they could feel his piercing glare) "You, midget!" she called out to Nawaki, getting a glare from the boy, "I'm sorry that you're a midget," she spoke with a grin.

"Tayuya! Apologize properly!"Naruto demanded of her, which she complied to.

"*sigh* I'm sorry for stating out the obvious and called you a midget," she finished with a shrug, not feeling all that sorry about it but apologizing anyway. Perhaps if the midget(HEY!) took part in the Chunin Exams, then she would show him how sorry she truly was.

Naruto sighed and nodded at his teammates apology, knowing that this was the most sincere she could pretend to be. Striding past her and the midget (SERIOUSLY, STOP CALLING ME THAT! I HAVE A NAME!) he approached the one he believed was the level-headed one of the group. Bowing slightly, he apologized for his teammates actions and hoped that both teams could put this past them, which Mito quickly agreed to. It seemed that it would all be smooth sailing for the two teams until Mito introduced herself to Naruto. That was when he froze.

"Can you come again, I'm not sure if I heard correctly," Naruto asked as he slowly began to loosen the grip the girl had on his wrists as they shook hands. A dangerous aura was beginning to form and even the civilians who were still there watching the interactions took a step back as the boy's tone went from friendly to cold in a matter of a few seconds.

"I said that my name is Mito Namikaze. That's my brother Nawaki Namikaze and our teammate Kenji, plus I was wondering what your name was. Is there a problem?"

"Yes... there is a problem," he ripped his hands from her and brushed past her harshly, not bothering to give her his name. Walking away, he called out to his teammates that they were leaving, and the two girls trailed after him. Soon, he had rounded the corner and was gone from the sight of a confused and slightly ticked off Team 11.

"What a bunch of assholes!" Nawaki shouted as the team was gone, still pissed off by the kunoichi not-so-pleasant apology. His sister however, said nothing, far too intrigued by what she had saw on each of the three genins' backs.

A burnt red spiral she was familiar with.

The clan symbol of the Uzumaki clan.

Her mother's _former_ clan.

* * *

 **That's right ladies and gentlemen, I have a new story out for you to read.**

 **The chapter is a little short for what I have planned for the story but this is just the prologue. My aim is to have somewhere close to 6K-8K words each chapter and this one is just above the 4K mark.**

 **Things to discuss:**

 **1) The issue of Tayuya. Yes, I know Tayuya isn't an Uzumaki as in the manga she has pink hair while in the anime she has red hair. But the fact is, I needed an Uzumaki to make up Naruto's team and decided not to make an OC but instead change Tayuya's backstory. So there.**

 **2)Naruto's appearance. Well obviously I can't have Naruto with his trademark blond hair and blue eyes, like I've said before, he is not Minato's nor Kushina's son. So that explains that and I'm sure most of you will realize who is father is based on his looks.**

 **3)Konoha's and Uzushiogakure's history is riddled with betrayal and deep-seated tensions which will be explained in the next few chapters and many will come to see why most of the jonins and Minato were concerned when the Uzumaki's arrive for the Chunin Exams.**

 **So until next time.**

 **-Gregorybryce9**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor any of the characters with the exceptions of the OC's who will feature in the story.**

* * *

Training Ground Seven has seen its fair share of legends in its time. The myriad of teams and shinobis who had began their mark on history under the shady trees which lined its boundaries probably had started when the First and Second Hokage had taken refuge under its shade and began the training of what would soon become a legendary team feared throughout the First Shinobi War. Under their tutelage, the Shinobi world had seen the rise of Hiruzen 'Professor' Sarutobi - soon to be Third Hokage - and Danzo Shimura. The tradition of extraordinary shinobis had continued with the formation of Team Sarutobi. Tsunade Senju, the Slug Princess, Orochimaru, the Snake Summoner, and Jiraiya, the Toad Sage. All three individuals had gone on to become Kage-level shinobi and had earned the moniker of Sannin. But perhaps the most legendary shinobi who had began his career under those shady tress had been Minato Namikaze, the man who had gone on to be the Fourth Hokage. This beast of a man had gone on to be universally accepted as completely invincible in straight combat and hailed as the strongest shinobi of his generation - if not, of all time.

But now, these legendary grounds were used as the meeting spot for a certain group of individuals. Grazing in the clearing was a grand total of thirteen persons - nine kids and four adults. This was the collective group of nine of the twelve rookie genins and their jonin senseis respectively. They had all been messaged to meet at Training Ground Seven by orders of the hokage and they all knew that the hokage's orders were not to be taken lightly. However, the genins were antsy and rightly so, it was not everyday that the hokage gave out direct orders to a rookie team and with their senseis clamming up and refusing to answer until all teams were present and accounted for, the nervousness had increased tenfold. But now, half an hour had passed and with the exception of Team 7 (who had gotten pretty used to having someone running late) nervousness had transitioned to irritation as they waited for the tardy Team 11 to arrive.

And speak of the devil...

Bursting through the foliage at breakneck speed was the entirety of Team 11. Their appearance was slightly disheveled due to brisk sprint they had done to reach the rendezvous point with some semblance of urgency. Before they could even catch their breaths, a man stepped forward towards them. Short-cropped brown hair peeked out behind of a face mask similar to the one the Second Hokage wore. The man had black almond shaped eyes and he stood a few inches taller than the average height for his age. "You're late," he simply stated, his arms folded across his chest.

"H-Hai sensei," Mito conceded with a slight bow, panting from her run, "But with good reason."

In response, Yamato only narrowed his eyes and the young kunoichi fidgeted under his gaze. His posture was straight and robust and his whole demeanor told the trio that he believed that there was nothing to warrant their tardiness. If there was one thing that could be said about Yamato was that the man was a stickler for punctuality, a stark contrast to Team 7's sensei, Kakashi Hatake.

"It's true sensei!" Nawaki piped up, only to shrink back in fear as his sensei used his feared 'ghoul-eyes' technique on the young Namikaze. Finding courage somewhere, Nawaki continued with his explanation. " You see, on our way here we ran into this genin team. They were all a bunch of jerks, especially that red-head girl. And their leader was a real jerk too, he wouldn't even shake Mito's hand when she tried to be nice to him, that teme!" the boy ranted, the little residual anger filtering out of his system. He was stilled pissed off by the kunoichi he had ran into for calling him a midget. That was a low blow and she knew it.

Yamato stared at Nawaki a little while longer before he flickered his gaze over to Kenji. "Was what he said true?" he asked the silent one of the team. Kenji nodded in affirmative, backing up Nawaki's story. "Alright, I believe you," he said, ignoring Nawaki's indignant shout as to why he believed Kenji over him. Before he could tell the group to sit down, a hand slapped down on his shoulder and he turned to see that the hand belonged to his former ANBU captain and one of the few friends he had. Kakashi had his lone visible eye upturned into a smile (still don't know how the hell he does that!) while he slipped his ever-present orange covered book into his pouch.

"Maa maa, Yamato. No need to get all worked up over a little lateness you know," the man commented while directing the trio to sit alongside their peers. He slipped around Yamato and stood in front of the gathered genins and smiled at them (although they couldn't see it due to his mask) "Plus, with any luck, they probably had ran into one of the other teams here for the Exams,"

"Yeah, now that they talked about it, didn't we run into that weird team from the Sand yesterday, Sasuke-kun," one of the genins spoke up, a young girl with rosy pink hair, emerald eyes and wore a red qipao dress.

"Yeah, now that you've mentioned it, we did run into a group from the Sand. Is that the reason why we're gathered here Kakashi-sensei?"

Kakashi nodded to his genin, internally complimenting the boy for his sharp mind. "In fact, yes it is. Soon enough, the village will be filled with genin teams from other nations. The reason being, they will all come here to participate in the Chunin Exams." He allowed them a few moments to take it all in. Of course, all the genin knew what the Chunin Exams were, having learnt about the bi-annual events during the Academy from the Fourth Hokage's revised Academy program.

"Troublesome... so I guess we're being forced to entered," Shikamaru concluded, the Nara heir having already come to conclusion when Kakashi had told them that this was the reason they were gathered here. Why else would a group of genin be told about the Chunin Exams if they weren't expected to participate?

"What are you talking about Shikamaru? There's no way we're ready for the Chunin Exams!" Ino piped up from beside her teammate.

"Actually Ino, Shikamaru is correct," It was at this point that Asuma had entered the conversation. "Not just Team 10, but all of you are being nominated for the Chunin Exams on the orders of the Hokage," Asuma explained to his genin and as an extension, the rest of the genins.

"What! No way Asuma-sensei. There's no way we're ready for these exams. Why are we even being forced to take part of in these exams?" Ino lamented to her sensei, earning a grunt of agreement from her teammate who hailed from the Akimichi clan. The brown haired genin had agreed with his teammate when she said that they were not ready for this type of competition, the Akimichi heir preferring to just lounge around and eat chips with his friend Shikamaru.

"Yeah sensei... why are we... being forced... into competing... ," Choji made out in between munching on a bag of chips.

"I'll give to you straight since you aren't considered kids anymore," Asuma said in a serious tone that caught his genins off-guard. The man was almost as lackadaisical as a Nara and would rather spend his days playing shoji with Shikamaru than really help them with their techniques, banking on their clans to help them. But now, they had just been introduced to the elite jonin Asuma Sarutobi. This was the man who had escaped his father's shadow (and being the son of the Third Hokage, that was a rather big shadow) when he accepted the Daimyo's offer and became one of the Twelve Guardian Ninjas. "You've all been told growing up that Konoha was the strongest of all villages and once upon time, that was true. But now, we're only the best in name and reputation only. Since the Kyuubi attack on all those years ago, we've been struggling to make up the man power we've lost over the years and it's only through the reputations of shinobi like the Fourth, Kakashi and Itachi among others why most of our enemies haven't tried to attack. But times have changed and new powers are rising at exponential rate and the Hokage believes it time for Konoha to regain our foothold on the world," Asuma explained, making sure he had the undivided attention of all the genins. It was time they grew up, and Asuma believed the Hokage had made the right decision in nominating the rookies, although it made little difference in the long run of things since he and the other jonin senseis had agreed to nominate the genins either way.

"Asuma is right," Yamato continued, "The last prodigy we've produced was Itachi Uchiha and that was years ago. With this year filled with so many clan heirs and heiresses, you are the future leaders of the village and such, you have the duty to uphold the village. I'm sure most of you might not agree with what I'm saying but the fact of the matter is, as a shinobi, you will be expected to put your life on the line for the sake of your village. This is your first step into what the shinobi world truly is, and as shinobi of the Leaf, you are expected to stand above the rest. Do you understand?"

A silence settled above the camp and the genins all had thoughtful gazes on their face. They were expected to lay their lives down for the village to thrive. Yes, they had heard that before but hearing and doing were two different things. They were twelve - barely thirteen year olds - yet such responsibility was being placed onto their small shoulders And all for what? The sake of the village? Was it really worth it? Were they truly capable of being shinobis?

Sasuke clenched his fists as he heard those thoughts echo in his head. No, he was ready. He had to be. Standing, he gave the jonin a determined gaze. "Nii-san made chunin when he was only 10 years old." the younger Uchiha sibling said, "I'm already twelve years old and I'm still genin... but not for long. I'm ready for these exams,"

Beside him, Nawaki jumped to his feet. The son of the Hokage pumped both fist with a feral grin on his face, "If Sasuke's doing it you can count me in!" the Namikaze declared.

"Troublesome... but If I don't then my mom's gonna be on my ass for this. Guess I'm in too," Shikamaru drawled, and before long various forms of confirmation came from the genin.

Asuma held back his smirk when he realized Kakashi's plan to motivate the genins had worked. The masked jonin had reasoned that if they mentioned that Itachi was the last prodigy that Konoha had produced, then his younger brother would no doubt try to become the next. Despite his cool exterior, Sasuke was still a boy striving for the affection of his stoic father and if he could do what Itachi had done and make chunin on his first try, there might be a chance his father might start to pay more attention to him. Kakashi also told them that if this happened, Nawaki would also follow suit, not wanting to be outdone by his rival. And this would cause a domino effect. No doubt if the other genins saw the two strongest of their year and their unofficial leaders pumped up for the exams, they too would follow behind. Sometimes, they made it too easy to manipulate them.

But there was one genin who had yet to agree. And Asuma had thought she would be the first to jump at the opportunity to take part in the exams.

"Is something wrong, Mito?"

"Yeah, don't tell me your scared," Narumi Namikaze teased. Just like her sister, the young Namikaze had red hair, yet hers was swept up into a high ponytail and reached the small if her back. She was seated between Sasuke and Sakura, both her teammates.

"No... that's not it," Mito admitted not rising to her sister's barb. " It's just... Kakashi-sensei, kaa-chan wasn't born in Konoha, right?" she asked the man who was her father's last remaining student. There was something about the team she had ran into that was bugging her. They all had blood-red hair like her mother, something she had learned was a trait of all Uzumaki clan members. Added to the fact that they also wore a spiral similar to the one she had seen on the rare occasions her mother had spoke about her former clan led Mito to believe that she had just ran into some distant relatives from her mother's side. And if so, she would stop at nothing to get to know about them. Her mother barely spoke about her side of the family, always clamming up and refusing to tell Mito about anything that couldn't be found out in the village's library. She knew something had happened that led to her mother's reluctance to talk about the Uzumaki clan but Mito wanted to know about her heritage and possibly mend the bridges between the two. And maybe she had found the bridge that needed said mending.

"No, she wasn't," Kakashi admitted. "She was born in another hidden village. Why are you asking?"

"It's nothing really, just verifying some stuff. And this village... " Mito paused, trying to be cautious with her words in case her sensei and other big-brother figure figured out what she was asking and refused to tell her anything, just like her mother and father. "So... this village, do they wear a spiral on their headband that looks like mom's clan symbol?" She finished, biting her lower lips that Kakashi said yes and was elated to get her desired answer.

"Yes, that's their symbol. But why are you asking?"

Mito was too elated to hold her excitement in any longer. She hopped to her feet and gave Kakashi the biggest hug she could manage. "IT'S REALLY THEM!" she screamed as she barreled right into Kakashi. "I can't believe it, after all this time, I have a chance to get to meet them!"

"Eh? What are you talking about Mito?" her brother asked as he watched his sister prance around Kakashi like an idiot. She was usually more reserved than that. Most of the times, she was calculative and calm like their father but she too had her moments of loud impulses like their mother.

"Think about it Nawaki. That genin team we ran into, they all had red hair just like Kaa-chan and they all wore the Uzumaki symbol on their headbands and the back of their shirts. They're Uzumakis, just like Kaa-chan and they're right here in the village!" she exclaimed, causing all those at the training ground eyes to widen like saucers, but for different reasons. For the genins, it was a big surprise to them that the family of the Hokage's wife were here in the village. It was no big secret that she had been estranged from her family but no one knew the exact reasons. Or if they did, they didn't tell the kids about it. The jonins, however, were shocked because they had hoped that they could have been able to keep the Uzumaki team away from the Namikaze siblings for the entirety of the exams yet they had ran into each other before the exams had even started.

Now what were the chances of that!?

They were brought out of their shock when they realized that the Namikaze siblings were now busy making plans about how to approach the team of Uzumakis and how they planned to show them a tour around the village. It would have brought a smile to his face that the kids were gonna meet relatives of theirs if it weren't for the fact that the two villages held no love for each other and Kushina was caught right in the middle for what she had done all those years ago. It was low and immoral but Kakashi was worried that the Uzumakis would use the kids as a way to get back at Kushina and he had already lost too many persons in his life and he wouldn't allow the siblings to add to the list. So with a steeled heart, he resolved to nip this in the bud.

"No," he told them. At their confused gazes, he elaborated. "You are banned from ever interacting with the Uzumaki team, do you understand?"

For the second time in a span of ten minutes, silence permeated the air. This time, it was broken by the low tone of one Mito Namikaze. "You knew," she said. It wasn't a question but a statement, a deadly edge to her voice. "All this time, you knew they were here didn't you?" she continued. At the lack of response, she forgone civility and threw herself at Kakashi, fury roaring in the depths of her eyes. He caught her frantic punches quite easily and held her firm in place, but that didn't stop the girl from struggling to escape his grip. Her siblings watched on, far more restrained with their anger but couldn't fault the girl for her efforts. They too were pissed off, finally happy that they had found family members from their mother's side of the family yet being denied the chance to meet them.

When Mito realized that she couldn't break free, she resorted to shouting at him. "WHAT RIGHT DO YOU HAVE TELLING ME I CAN'T MEET THEM? THEY'RE MY FAMILY, NOT YOURS! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT, THEY WERE HERE BUT YOU DIDN'T ME. I THOUGHT YOU CARED! But..." she ranted, trailing off at the end, having ran out of steam. Kakashi relinquished his hold on her and she slumped to the ground. "But I was wrong about you. You don't care. I guess you never did," After saying her piece, he left the clearing with her head hung low, her siblings right behind her in support.

Meanwhile, Kakashi stood rooted to the spot, willing himself not to show how much her words hurt him. He could understand her perspective, and understood where she was coming from. She was a girl just trying to get to know her family. But her family was not the Uzumakis. At least, not in spirit. The Uzumakis weren't the one that cared for her. That raised her. That protected from her nightmares. No, that was her father and mother. And he would make sure that it stayed like that and that she didn't meet the Uzumaki clan.

Even if she would hate him for it.

* * *

Naruto had not been expected anyone so when he heard a knock on his door, he had been surprised. Tayuya and Karin had left about half an hour ago saying that they had wanted something to eat. Of course, they had invited their team leader if he had wanted to come along but Naruto had refused, preferring to stay indoors during his stay here in Konoha. Sure, he might be overreacting but there was no way he would go out and hang around like a normal person inside the village. His teammates had misjudged his anger and had thought that he hated the village but that was far from it. He didn't hate the village, per say. No, it was more about who in the village he would rather not run into. No doubt if he and _her_ were to cross paths, Naruto had no idea how he might react and he would want to risk the off-chance that they would end up in a fight.

Rising off his bed in the luxurious hotel they had been provided, Naruto walked towards the door, a bit hesitant in his steps. He didn't know anyone in the village with the exception of his teammates and they had no need to knock on the door seeing as though they had a key to the room. Reaching the knob and twisting it open, he was greeted by a certain redhead he had not expected to come knocking on his door.

"You... what are you doing here?" he asked the person.

"Can I come in?" the person asked.

* * *

Kushina was having a normal day up to that point. She was at home, having decided to take on the role as a full-time stay at home mom after having the kids. She was washing some dishes when Kakashi had appeared through a shunshin and had informed her of what had went down between him and Mito. The dishes had slipped through her hands - long forgotten - as Kushina flew out the door at speeds that many jonin in the village couldn't dream to keep up with.

Her destination, the Hokage's Tower.

Within his office, Minato suddenly felt a cold chill run down the length of his spine and the S-class shinobi suddenly felt afraid. Very afraid. He, of course, knew the source of this distress. Having been married to the woman for years, and before that, being close friends with her since saving her life, Minato's body had built a self-defense mechanism to whenever Kushina was angry. And right now, all of the man's internal alarms were blaring, screaming out to the man to hide away in a metal bunker deep, deep, _deep_ underground and pray to Kami that his wife doesn't find him. But before he could even leave his seat, the door to his office was broken into a million little splinters and the hinges blown clean off. Several ANBU operatives flickered to life around their Hokage but upon seeing how they were up against, they turned slowly to their Hokage and gave a salute goodbye. Upon seeing his supposedly most elite force run away with the tails between their legs, Minato gritted his teeth. _'What the hell happened to defending your kage even in the face of death'_ Minato raved inwardly, before flinching as an enraged Kushina gripped by the front of his collar and dragged him out of his chair and over his desk. _'But I can't blame them, I'd rather be anywhere but here,'_

"What the hell, Minato? Why didn't you tell me the Uzumaki's sent a genin team here?" Kushina asked, fear evident in her eyes.

"I... I thought that... " he tried to explain before he was thrown into the small couch in his room. Before he could try to explain himself, he was caught off-guard by the tears brimming from her eyes. Despite all the years she had spent in the village and the fearsome reputation she had built with her temper, Kushina was still very insecure and would sometimes hide her distress with anger. Seeing her like this, reminded him of the first time she had stepped foot in the village. She had half-expected to be attacked and wouldn't leave Minato's side until the Third had reassured her that she was safe and no harm would come to her within the village's wall. He sighed as he ran his hand through his hair. Standing up and walking over to her, he wrapped her into a hug, grimacing as he heard her small sobs. She was shaking like a leaf and he wanted to do anything he could to stop her from crying but at the moment, he was out off ideas.

"We can't... We can't let them get to the kids," Kushina sniffled out through her tears, her head still buried into her husband's chest. That had been a fear of hers since she found out she was pregnant with the triplets. She knew what she had done was seen as near traitorous in the eyes of the Uzumaki clan and it was because of those actions why she had opted to drop her last name completely and adopted the Namikaze family name. She had hoped that her fears wouldn't materialize into reality but with the Uzumakis here now, it could only mean trouble.

"There not here for the kids Kushina, I'm sure of that," he soothed into his wife's hair, blowing away a strand of red hair from her face. He too had feared the worse when he saw had received the notice of participation from the Whirlpool Village but reasoned that they had no way of knowing that his children would be in the exams, seeing as though the decision for their nomination was only made two days ago and the village had sent their notice a week prior to that.

Kushina had stopped crying when she heard her husband's words and was slowly wiping away the tears from her eyes. Embarrassingly, she accepted the tissue he had offered her and ducked away with a blush on her face when she heard his soft laughter at her expression. Many would comment that it was an odd scene if they had seen it themselves. The indomitable ex-kunoichi that was Kushina Uzumaki was blushing up a storm like a school girl and many would have feared that it must of been the end of days. But this was the side of Kushina she had only shown to the ones she loved. Minato, Nawaki, Mito and Narumi.

And at one point in her life, _he_ was apart of that short list.

But thinking of him only brought back painful memories.

Clearing her head from a painful trip down memory lane, she fixed Minato with a glare that could kill a man a thousand times over. _'Man, she jumps from adorable to scary in no time whatsoever,'_ Minato thought as he backed away from her. "Listen to me Minato. If a single hair on my babies' head is hurt in these exams, I'll make you pay!" she sneered out.

"H-H-Hai, Kushina. I promise that they won't get hurt,"

"Good, I'll hold you to that promise," she said as she spun on her heels and left the office, leaving behind a pale Fourth Hokage. Minato could only smile weakly. As much as he loved his wife, sometimes the woman could drive the fear of god into him. _'But I wouldn't want it any other way,'_ he thought.

"And could someone get me a new door, goddamnit!" he shouted out to no one in particular.

* * *

"So this is the place, huh," Tayuya commented as she and her team closed in on the Academy, the site for the first portion of the exams. A week had passed and it was time for the first examinations to begin. She stood to the right of Naruto with Karin at his left. It was a weird formation and only emphasized how much taller the two girls were compared to Naruto but he had requested for them to be that way. They had all changed their appearance, or in Naruto's case, the colour of his clothes. The three Whirlpool genins wore a dark cloak with one singular red line running down the middle. It was slightly based off of the the uniform the Uzukage's elite guards wore, known to their village as the Akatsuki. The only difference between the two was where the Akatsuki had small red clouds adorning the dark cloak, theirs had none, only a burnt red Uzumaki swirl at the back.

Karin fidgeted with her glasses as she scanned the chakra levels of each of the genins present. She had opted not to wear the cloak with an high collar and instead wore it with a hood she currently had down. "I can sense a few notable chakra signatures," she informed her teammates as they entered the Academy and headed up towards the staircase. "They're bordering on the lines of high genin level signature, nothing we can't deal with."

"So we're dealing with a bunch of pansies huh. I can deal with that" Tayuya smirked viciously. "This should be easy-pickings, haha!" she laughed before before being slapped at the back of her head. Whirling around to see who had the nerve to hit her, she caught the faintest of smiles behind the high-collared cloak Naruto wore. Looking at him now, she wouldn't have believed to think that this same boy was the prodigy of the Uzumaki clan, having already surpassed genin level years ago. The only reason he was taking these exams was a formality and as a way to display to the world that the might of the Uzumaki clan hadn't dwindled throughout the years. After all, there was a reason that three of the five great villages had decided to attack a minor village and still wasn't able to destroy it.

"Don't get overconfident, Tayuya," he warned her, "These genins are the best of each of their respective villages and it is not often that all five of the great villages send in applicants at a single event. It would be wise to be cautious in our actions from this point on," he advised the head-strong kunoichi who only nodded at his words, showing that she understood his reasoning.

"Right, Naruto-kun," she replied and was about to add something before she bumped into the back of a genin.

"Hey watch it Red! We all want to get into the room so there's no need to push," the offended genin sneered before he turned his back to hear to observe what seemed to be a confrontation between two veteran genin and boy wearing an abysmal shade of green spandex suit. The bushy-brow weirdo - as Tayuya so _affectionately_ \- dubbed the boy was a genin of Konoha, slated by his headband. Apparently, he wanted to enter the room to begin the examinations, which brought a frown to Tayuya's face seeing as though they were one floor below the actual exam rooms. Before she could point that out to the weirdo, her wrists were caught by the firm grip of Naruto before he whispered to her that it was a genjutsu used to weed out the weak from the exams from the get-go. Seeing the logic behind his statement, she followed him and Karin up the stairs, slipping away before any of the other genins noticed them. Before they could reach the top of the staircase however, they stopped when another genin who had discovered the secret to the genjutsu decided he would blab it to the other competitors.

Naruto frowned as he heard a dark-haired genin point out the reason behind the test. The boy had only lessened his own chances of passing the exams by adding more competition. Deciding that he wanted nothing to do with fool who had done that, he continued on his way to the real room on the third floor, oblivious to the eyes that watched his retreat from the scene.

* * *

Narumi was nothing like her older brother Nawaki. The only son of their parents usually decided to hit first and ask questions later, which - inevitably - had gotten him into problems many times before. She, however, was a bit more calculative than that, and had easily seen through the low-level genjutsu that was cast and had deduced the reason behind it. The same could not be said about her teammate, Sasuke Uchiha. The boy was this year's rookie of the year, barely beating out her brother Nawaki in terms of academic grades. She was close friends with him, a product of both their mother's friendship and she could honestly say she saw him as one of her closest friends. But there was somethings she hoped he would grow out of, and that included his goal to be the best there is. On face value, it was an admirable goal to strive for but it was the way he went about it that was wrong. Perhaps it was because of his older brother, Itachi Uchiha the clan heir. Living in the shadow of such a shinobi was hard on the boy, and with a father like Fugaku Uchiha, it only seemed to cause the boy more grief. Make no mistake, Sasuke still loved his older brother and father dearly, and only wished to please them both. So whenever the chance arrived, Sasuke would not hesitate to prove his superiority over others.

So when he had noticed the genjutsu he had been quick to point it out, not even thinking for a moment that there was a reason behind the genjutsu. Deciding it was better to allow Sasuke to continue whatever the hell he had planned seeing as though he had already revealed the genjutsu, she opted to scan the hallway to see the if there was anyone who was worth noting. Immediately, a flash of red caught her eyes and she took a sharp intake of breath when she realized who it was. _'The Uzumakis'_ she thought as she saw one of the Uzumakis - no doubt their leader based on Mito's descriptions - frowned as he watched Sasuke verbal barb with a Hyuga boy before he turned and continued up the stairs, his team slightly behind him. Her eyes narrowed as she saw him disappear up the stairs.

 _'We'll meet soon enough Uzumaki,'_ she promised. And she never breaks her promises.

"... everyone is always talking about the Uchiha clan and how great they are, I want to see if it is true. I believe you will be a good test for me," the bowl-cut hair boy said, falling into a unique taijutsu stance. This was what greeted Narumi as she turned back towards her teammate. Catching the tail-end of their conversations and the fact that both boys had fallen into respective fighting stance, it didn't take long for Narumi to realize that the newcomer had apparently challenged Sasuke to a fight and that the Uchiha had agreed.

He'd do anything to stoke his ego, Narumi thought.

"Sorry but this won't be happening," she grabbed Sasuke by the collar of his shirt and motioned for Sakura to come along. "You guys can have your fight after the Chunin exams. I don't want to be late,"

Sasuke, never one to back down from a challenge, had to agree with Narumi that perhaps this wasn't the best time for a fight to begin. He spared one last look to the genin who had introduced himself as Rock Lee and gave him a look that said _'we finish this later'_ before he allowed Narumi to drag him towards Room 301. Just when the room came into view, their sensei Kakashi poof-ed into existence, orange book in hand as always.

"Good to see you all made it," he spoke with an eye-smile he flipped a page, "Now remember, once you enter that room, the exam has begun. You are representing the best that our village has to offer and no doubt many will be gunning for you since you're all rookies but know that myself and the other jonin senseis truly believe that you guys are ready. Whatever happens, your team comes first and know that I'm proud to call you all my cute little genins,"

He received a resounding 'Hai, sensei' for his efforts to cheer them on and with one last look at them, he poof-ed out of existence just as how he had appeared.

Team 7 looked at one the other and pushed the door open, only for Sasuke to be tackled to the ground by a blond blur. "Sasuke-kun!" Narumi shook her head in amusement as she watched her childhood friend being fought over by two of his loudest fan girls. She smiled as she noticed the rest of the rookies walk over to their position, each expression ranging from barely contained excitement to reeking of nervousness.

"I guess we're all here huh," Narumi commented as she shared a brief hug with her sister and a acknowledging nod by her brother. She greeted the others pleasantly and smiled at Hinata Hyuga, the heiress who could barely concentrate while being so close to her brother who was her not-so-secret crush. she laughed internally at how dense her brother could be to a girl's feelings.

"You guys might want to try a keep it down a little," another competitor spoke as he approached the rowdy set of rookies as they greeted each other. His ash-grey hair swayed behind him in a ponytail as he walked with a sense of confidence with each step. He wore a purple sleeveless shirt with a white undershirt peeking out. Finishing off his look was purple pants the same shade as his shirt a white cloth waist band. He fidgeted with his black rimmed glasses as he smiled coyly at the rookies. "I mean, no offense, but your the 'rookie twelve' right, fresh out of the Academy?" I wouldn't go around making a spectacle of yourselves. Just cool it, this is a class field trip,"

"Well who asked you? Who are you anyways?" Ino shot back, pausing from her argument with Sakura to deal with the rude genin who had approached their group.

"The name's Kabuto Yakushi," the teenager introduced himself. He paused slightly as he tilted his head to side as though studying them. 'Everyone's jittery for the exams so I thought I'g warn you before you get beaten up," he explained his motives. "This is my seventh time taking the exams so I'm sort of an exam. I though I could give you guys a few 'tips' seeing as though we're from the same village and all," he continued, a small smile on his face as he saw the rookies thinking over his offer. Sasuke was the first to step forward, a look in his eyes that Kabuto couldn't quite place.

"What kind of tips are we talking about?"

Kabuto smirked before reaching into his pockets and pulling out a pack of... cards? He shuffled the deck while he explained to the rookies that over the years he had taken note of everyone who had taken the test before and had gathered information and all the genins competing this year, including their stats. This, of course, caught the attention of all those in the room, especially a certain redhead hailing from Whirlpool Village.

"Personal information... I'm deal," Sasuke said as he stepped closer to Kabuto. "Tell me everything you've got on Rock Lee of Konoha and Gaara of the Sand,"

Kabuto laughed lowly as he touched the top of the deck and flared his chakra for a brief second. "You already know their names, that takes the fun out of the it." he paused slightly as the cards shuffled and one shot forward into his hands. "Okay, first up is Rock Lee of Konoha. It says here that he's only a year ahead of you guys and graduated at the bottom of his class. His mission experience are 20 D-ranks and 11 C-ranks. His jonin sensei is Might Guy and according to this, Lee's taijutsu as increased radically but his other skills are shaky," he explained with a slight frown before he moved on to the other genin on the list. "Here we go... Gaara of the Sand. He's a rookie, just like you guys and graduated at the top of his class. His mission experience is 0 D-ranks, 8 C-ranks and... get this 1 B-rank as a genin," he said, chuckling as he saw the gobsmacked look of the genins as they heard his past missions. He read ahead and was frightened by what he saw "I-I-It says here that up til a few months ago, h-h-he was mentally unstable and would regularly go on k-k-killing sprees. No one but the Kazekage and his siblings know why he stopped but it seems he's sane again."

Mito gulped as she heard about what a terror this Gaara was made out to be and prayed that she would never have to cross his path during the exams. That guy sounded like the kind that needed to locked away forever and have the key thrown far far _far_ away. Suppressing the image of a bloodthirsty genin chasing after her, she stepped forward to Kabuto with a big question on her mind. "Give me all the information you have on the team of Uzumakis who entered this year."

"The Uzumaki team huh... this should be tricky," he mused as he flipped through the myriad of cards in his deck. He had reached the last three cards when he suddenly beamed, "Here we go. Now what do we have... First up is Tayuya Uzumaki. Says here she's a rookie too, like you guys. There's a lot of rookies this year it seems." That was all he said as he suddenly paled.

"What is it Kabuto-san?" Mito asked, afraid the boy didn't have information on the Uzumakis. She had tried her best to research whatever she could find on them but the Uzumakis were a isolated and private group of people.

"H-Her mission experience is 0 D-ranks, 5 C-ranks, 3 B-ranks and 1 A-rank, all under six months and all of them were a success!" he told them, and whatever it was bout Gaara that had impressed them was clearly blown out of the water by Tayuya's stats.

"N-No way! That's impossible for a genin, especially a rookie," Kiba shouted, trying desperately to disprove Kabuto's words.

"Troublesome. We just had to take part in the same year as the rest of these powerhouses,"

"It says here that she is considered a prodigy among her year and has the ability to summon demons to fight for her," Kabuto continued, his voice shaky with each word he spoke. "The next person other team is Karin Uzumaki. Just like her teammate she has the same stats. It says here that she's a medic nin and a plays the role of support on the team. Not much is known about her beyond that." Kabuto sighed, slightly relieved that there seemed to be one normal person on the team. "And the last person is their team leader, Naruto Uzumaki. Oh... my... god... i-i-it says he's the son of the Fourth Uzukage, the leader of their village. There's absolutely nothing about him except the fact that he's already placed in the Bingo Book, a catalog of all the most dangerous and upcoming shinobi. According to this, he earned the moniker... the Wrath of God,"

A pin could be heard in the room at Kabuto's at word and most head swiveled to the direction of the Uzumaki team where they were greeted by Tayuya twirling a silver flute in her hands with a vicious grin on her face.

"O-O-Okay, new rule," Ino stuttered out. "We stay the heck away from those three,"

"Troublesome," was all Shikamaru said but underneath the lazy facade, he agreed with Ino's plan. There was no way he was taking on that team voluntarily.

The room was thrown for another loop as a loud poof of smoke revealed a new figure. The man was large imposing figure. Scars ran along the side of his face and he wore his headband in bandanna fashion. draped over his shoulders was a large black trench coat and beneath that was a standard Konoha uniform worn by the members of the Konoha Torture and Interrogation Force.

"ALL RIGHT YOU BABY-FACED DEGENERATES, PIPE DOWN AND LISTEN UP! I'M IBIKI MORINO AND THE PROCTOR FOR THE FIRST PART OF THE CHUNIN EXAMS SO YOU ALL SHOULD TAKE A SEAT BEFORE I KICK YOU OUT!"

* * *

 **There you have it, another installment of Uzumaki's Wrath.**

 **A bit more information on certain characters were revealed in this chapter and a few hints on certain changes from the canon timeline were dropped, and new questions arise.**

 **What did Kushina do that made her so scared that the Uzumakis would retaliate by targeting her kids? What happened to Gaara that led him to stopped killing so early on in the timeline? And who was the redhead that visited Naruto in his hotel room and what did they want?**

 **Find out in the next chapter (or the others following, have to keep you guessing for a while, ya know.)**

 **Till next time**

 **-Gregorybryce9**


	3. Chapter 3

**Alright ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the third chapter of the Uzumaki's Wrath, so grab a seat and be prepared to be enthralled.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor any of his subsequent series.**

* * *

A small congregation of genin from the various villages scattered across the globe were all in awe by the tall masses of trees that towered before them. The only thing that stood between them and the dense and shady forest being a metal fence and a scantily dressed Special Jonin from Konoha. The kunoichi in question had introduced herself in a way that Nawaki would no doubt approve of; loud and proud. The first examination had only just finished when the windows were shattered and a banner was strung up by a few well-aimed kunai. Many persons were shocked by the act, but had welcomed it just the same. That man, Ibiki Morino, was a damn sadist who probably fed on the fears of any unfortunate genin who had crossed his path.

But now, maybe they were second-guessing their thoughts. It seemed they had jumped right out of the fire and into hot lava based on the predatory gaze their second proctor was aiming at them. And that kunai she was twirling in her hand didn't ease any fears they might have had.

She stood a head over most of the genin taking part in the exams. She had brown pupil-less eyes and her violet hair was styled in a short, spiky, fanned-ponytail. Her apparel left nothing to imagination as she wore a mesh body armor running from her neck and stopped mid-thigh. Worn over this was an orange miniskirt and a tan trench coat that billowed slightly with every step she took. Around her neck was a weird necklace that looked a snake's fang. In all she was drop-dead hot, and had no shame in showing of her body. Even if it was mostly to a bunch of teenagers.

"This is the location for the second part of the Chunin Exams," Anko explained as a genin commented on why they were gathered here. Her face was set in a small smile which, oddly enough, sent a few shivers down the spine of few of the weaker-willed genin. "Officially, it's named the 44th Battle Training Zone," she explained, her smile only growing in size.

"And... unofficially?" someone commented out from the crowd. At this point, her small smile was a full-blown grin.

"We like the call it the Forest of Death. Hee hee, and soon enough, you'll find find out why," she chuckled softly, taking a little pleasure in seeing the blood drain from their faces. Well most of them. One of the team from the Sand and the lone team from Whirlpool both seem indifferent to the fact that they were entering a place called from the Forest of Death. She grinned. She had heard a lot about the strength of the Uzumakis and there was no other time than the present than to find out the truth behind rumors. She drew a kunai from her pouch and threw it at the shortest of the group, figuring he was the weak link. She didn't wait to see if it would hit, having all the confidence that she wouldn't miss her mark. With a well-timed shunshin, she appeared behind him with a kunai in hand, ready to cut his cheek and leak just a _little_ blood.

Unfortunately - or fortunately - depending on who's perspective you were viewing from, the boy had reacted fast enough, tilting his head to the side as to allow the kunai to miss its mark. It sped towards the Grass team behind him, cutting the hair of one of the Grass nin. When Anko appeared behind him, she found herself rooted to the ground, unable to move an inch, as though someone had hijacked her body while the genin she had targeted turned towards her expressionless. He lifted his left arm and out of his sleeve, a sleek black metal rod slid from the arm length of his cloak and rested upon the crook of her neck.

"Careful now proctor-san, we wouldn't want an... accident. Now do we?" he asked, his voice barely above a whisper but enough that only Anko heard what he had said. Speaking about the Snake Mistress, she was sporting a look of shock, not having expecting the boy to have dodged the attack, much less counter with one of his own. Soon, the shock smoothed out to a look of veiled respect. She could respect what the boy had done, and if he made it through the forest and reached the tower, she would be looking forward to see how he fought. _'Perhaps these exams will be interesting after all,'_ she thought as she slowly leaned away from the boy, having sometime during the confrontation regained control over her body movements. However, her danger senses kicked in and she spun with her kunai in a reverse grip. She, however, paused her assault when she saw a familiar kunai being returned to her in the oddest of fashion. An elongated tongue.

"And what's the reason from attacking me... Grass nin?" Anko asked her attacker which was revealed to be the same shinobi whose hair had been cut from the stray kunai. The genin only smiled as he offered the kunai again.

"Forgive me proctor-san, but I get a bit over-zealous when my precious hair is cut. And when I saw your little 'altercation', I couldn't help but get a little... " the genin paused and licked his (or was it a her? Ugh! genders these days are getting harder to judge) lips and moaned, "... hmm, _excited._ "

"I understand, Grass nin," she sympathized, before her grip tightened and the weapon was brought closer to the neck of the genin, "But unless you want to die, I'll advise you not to do it again. Are we clear?"

"Crystal,"

"Good." She grabbed the kunai from the genins tongue and with a small nod, disappeared back to the front of the group, seemingly unperturbed by what had just happened. She clapped her hands twice to regain control of the proceedings and was pleased to see all the eyes were fixed on her. "Now, before we begin with the second part of the exams, I have something to had out to you all. It just a standard consent form. Before this test... all of you are going to have to read over its content and then sign it," she explained while collecting a stack of small papers from the chunin who were stationed in a small tent at the front of the grounds. She waved the papers over her head to show the genins what exactly they would be signing.

"What for?" Nawaki commented from his spot in between his teammates.

"Simple," she started, "Some of you may not be coming back from this test... and I have to get your consent to that risk. Otherwise it would be my responsibility! So to avoid the extra paperwork of having to explain to your kage why their genin died, this saves me a whole lot of time!" she explained, not once losing the shit-eating grin on her face. Honestly, what did they expect? For her to hold their hands while they make their way through the forest. Ha! She rather give up eating dango forever before she did that.

"Thanks for the consideration," she heard someone mutter sarcastically as they signed the consent form.

"Okay seeing as though that is gone and done with, I'll explain what you'll be doing on this test. The first thing you'll need to know is that this test will tax everyone of your survival skills. First, I'll give you a description of the terrain on the practice field. The 44th Battle Training Zone as 44 locked entrance gates, and inside are rivers and a forest. In the center there is a tower, located 10 kilometers from each gate. It's within this confined area that you'll undergo the survival test," she explained as the genin nodded along to her words. "The test is basically an anything-goes battle to get your hands on these scrolls." she announced.

"Scrolls?" the rosette of Team 7 asked aloud.

At this point, Anko produced two scrolls. Both looked normal enough but each was a different colour, one light blue while the other was a muddy brown. "Here I have two scrolls. One is a heaven scroll while the other is an earth scroll. You'll be fighting to get both a heaven scroll and an earth scroll. All together, thirty teams will be taking part in the test, so half of those teams will be going after a heaven scroll, while the other half will be going after an earth scroll. I'll hand over one type of scroll to each team and that's what you'll be vying for."

"Okay, so how do we pass this test?" Karin spoke up from Naruto's side, already having a vague idea has to how the test would proceed. More than likely, a single team would have to fight another team to obtain both a heaven and an earth scroll then they would have to bring both scrolls to a certain pint where the proctor would check their authenticity. And if she was reading the situation right, this point was more than likely the center of the forest where the tower was located.

"Your entire squad must bring both scrolls to the tower," she said, confirming Karin's theory about how the exams were to proceed. In fact, the glasses-wearing girl smirked at the proctor's words. This test would be a piece of cake for her team based on their abilities. She ignored the other genin as they discussed all the disadvantages they would be facing in the forest and went to collect the scroll her team would be receiving for the examination. When the item was handed to her, she immediately gave the scroll to Naruto, who merely looked at her, shrugged and pocketed the earth scroll into his cloak.

"Right, I almost forgot," the proctor piped up, causing the Uzumakis to look at her, waiting for her to explain. "There are some ways for you to get disqualified from the exams," she said, getting a few frowns from the genin group. "The first is simple, if all three members of the team don't make it to the tower with both scrolls, you'll be disqualified. Number two, if a team loses a member or a member becomes incapacitated or cannot continue, you will be disqualified. But the most important rule is that none of you... and I mean NONE of you... may look at the contents of the scroll until you've reached the tower,"

"Ano... what if it _happens_ that one of the scrolls fell and flopped open and you read it," Nawaki asked, a little grin on his face.

"Let me put it this way young man," her small smile became downright murderous with intent and Nawaki paled and backed away from the wacko proctor. " _You don't want to know what'll happen if you do!_ There are times when a ninja will be asked to carry secret documents, the scroll rule is to test your integrity. Okay, that's all the explaining to be done. Those who haven't done it yet, go and collect your scroll and head to your designated gate. The others... good luck. When you hear the signal, the second test has begun!"

* * *

Team 'Uzumaki' tree-hopped through the forest at a sedated pace. Their formation had changed to one resembling a triangle, with Karin at point. She had truly meant it when she said that with each of their individual skill, the exam would be a piece of cake. With her sensor ability, she would lead her team towards the nearest team in their vicinity, drastically reducing the time they would have spent trying to hunt down a genin team. This also allowed for them to always be on the offensive as it was virtually impossible for a team to ambush them. When they had located a team, she would simply fall back into her role as a support fighter and allow Tayuya and Naruto to strong-arm the opposing team into handing over their scrolls seeing as though there wasn't a genin alive who could hope to beat Naruto in single combat. She pushed the glasses up the bridge of her nose - a little habit she had whenever she felt condescending - and smirked as she felt three chakra signatures nearby.

"There's a team directly up ahead," she called out to her teammates who nodded and took the lead in the formation. They increased their speed and soon enough, they ran into the aforementioned team. Standing right below them was a team from Konoha. A quick glance was enough to tell Naruto that this was not one of the rookie teams that had been sent into the exams and he felt disappointed for a split-second before he realized it would have been unsatisfactory to have ran into one of them so early on. No, this team included three average looking genin who could've blended into the background without any real effort. He knew their type, the ones who were satisfied with a chunin promotion for all their lives and didn't seek to go any higher up the ranks. He frowned.

He hated those type of shinobi.

"Stay back, this won't take long," he told his team and truly meant it. He was a really level-headed guy and while he knew he was strong, he rarely ever flaunted his superiority over his opponents. But there was something about these type of shinobi which always seemed to drive him up the wall. He believed in effort. The strive to greatness by digging deep and pushing yourself to your limits and then further beyond. Perhaps this was something he had gained from the large amount of time he spent around Yahiko-ojisan. The orange-haired shinobi who had originally hailed from Rain Country had played a large influence on Naruto's whole belief and Naruto had learned from him that those who wasted their time believing that they wouldn't make it very far without even trying were not worth the effort nor your respect.

The girls nodded and remained in the trees for support in case anything were to happen.

The three unsuspecting genins were gathered in a clearing as to prepare their plans on how to proceed from that point on. About a quarter of an hour had passed and yet they hadn't ran into anyone, not that they expected to. This would be the fifth time they had taken the chunin exams and this was the farthest they had gotten. Their jonin sensei had been adamant that this year would be their best chance seeing as how most of the competition would come the rookies and with them being veterans, they had experience over the others. Their hopes had risen when they had passed the first exams and now they were willing to stay on the defensive side of things as not to jinx anything up.

But Lady Luck obviously was not smiling in their favor.

One minute they were discussing their plans and a secret code if they were separated and the next, a cloaked figure and fallen out of the foliage and walked slowly towards them. Immediately they were on guard, each pulling their respective kunai and falling into a respective taijutsu stance.

"Hand over your scroll," the figure said as he took two steps forward to them and stopped. "I'd rather end this without a fight,"

"As if! There's only one of you and three of us!" one of them barked defiantly.

 _'He must be the one carrying the scroll,'_ Naruto deduced, before beneath his red bangs, his eyes narrowed. _'And with the way he clutching that pouch strapped to his back, that's where it is.'_

Having done deduced the location of the scroll, Naruto stretched his hand forward and beckoned for the scroll. "You there, in the middle, surrender your scroll to me. It would be better if you heeded my words." Offhandedly, Naruto enjoyed their shocked looks at how he had easily figured who was the one carrying their scroll. But to be fair, they had made it quite too easy for him. He was brought out of his thoughts when one of the genin, probably their leader, charged with a loud cry. He closed the distance between the two and threw a punch which Naruto easier caught and held the Leaf nin in his grasp. "Fine, if that it how you want to do it, I'll oblige you,"

CRACK

The boy stumbled back and cried out in pain as his wrist was broken. Pain flared up and down his arm as his wrist throbbed. He clutched the injured arm with his other and glared hatred at Naruto. In response, the red-head only scoffed in disdain before he planted his feet into the boy's chest, making him double over and dry-heave from the pain. A heel stomped to the back of his head sent him into the realm of dreams. The remaining two teammates were shocked into silence. Their best fighter had been taken out so easily by a boy who barely passed his chest. The one with the scroll suddenly remembered the words of the bespectacled boy who had read the stats of the genin in front of him and had mentioned that the boy who had taken out their teammate had already made it into the Bingo Book and earned the moniker, Wrath of God.

And a name like that, the kid was undoubtedly badass.

"Okay okay okay, I'll give you the scroll," he surrendered, telling his teammate to shut up and be quiet when he protested. "J-J-Just let us leave okay," he begged, having no shame in his actions. He knew his limits and this boy was out of his league. "D-Deal?" Naruto pondered for a moment before nodding to the boy's terms, seeing no reason not to comply. He got what he wanted and there was possibly one less team to worry about. The genin quickly shuffled through the contents of his pouch and grabbed the scroll and threw it to Naruto, who frowned when he realized what it was.

"An earth scroll," he sneered, "We need a heaven scroll. This is of no use to us,"

"S-Sorry dude but that's all we have. Just let us go, please," he begged, hoping that the genin had some shred of sympathy in him. For a moment, he thought it was all over but he was proven wrong when Naruto picked up his teammate and threw him at him as if he weighed nothing.

"Take your teammate and get out of here," Not needing to be told twice, he grabbed his comrade and soon enough, he and his team was gone.

Naruto remained in the clearing as Tayuya and Karin dropped into place at either side of him. Tayuya scowled, "Are you sure that was a good idea, we could've have easily taken them out," she explained, wanting to know the reason why Naruto had let them go so easily.

"I'd rather not kill unless necessary," he admitted with a slight shrug. "Plus, they did do us a favor," She raised a brow at his statement which led him to explain that with them possessing two earth scrolls, this meant that another team would go without one, meaning an automatic disqualification. Tayuya's mouth formed a small 'o' as she saw the logic behind Naruto's word before she immediately scowled as Karin began to speak.

"Of course someone like you wouldn't understand," Karin teased her fellow kunoichi, not missing an opportunity to insult Tayuya.

"Oh shut up, I don't want to hear it from you four-eyes. The only reason why you're here is to try and get into Naruto-kun's pants," Tayuya fired back in her typically spit-fire attitude. Karin suddenly blushed at the implications. But she would have her revenge.

"As if that's not what you're here for!" Karin accused right back, and soon enough, where once stood a group of dangerous shinobi on a mission became a wrestling ground for two beet-red girls engaged in name-calling and hair-pulling while the only male watched on with an exasperating look. He sighed as he stepped in the middle of the two and with a raised fist, thumped both girls on the head. He had seriously gotten tired of their silly little squabbles that would erupt from time to time. Sometimes, Naruto would curse the fact he was born an Uzumaki. Although they were a family-oriented clan, that didn't stop them from wanting to beat the living daylights out of each other over the simplest of things. It seemed that it was only himself, and his father, who hadn't cursed with the Uzumaki temper, something he thanked kami for every single time he saw his clan members fighting.

"Now is not the time for fighting. Do that on your own free time," he reprimanded and both girls nodded with slight blushes on their faces. "Alright, now that that's settled. Karin, I want you to search out where the nearest team is and in what direction and how far away."

Karin nodded to her leader's words and concentrated. A few seconds later, she smiled. "There's a large gathering of chakra signatures close to us. It seems two of the genin are unconscious while one is nervous. From what I can read off their chakra, it seems that there was an ambush on one of the teams and some of their friends must have come to their help. And based on the number of them, I think this might be the rookies from Konoha and another team," she explained before her face twisted up as though she was disgusted by the smell of something rank.

"What is it, four-eyes?" Tayuya asked her and Karin ignored her insult before explaining that one of the chakra signatures felt... dark and disgusting.

 _'Dark and disgusting, huh,'_ Naruto thought _'Orochimaru did make his move, I guess you were right... Gaara,'_

* * *

 **A week ago**

 _"Can I come in?" the person asked._

 _Naruto kept his hand on the door as he tried to think of the reasons why this red haired person had come to his door. They hadn't seen each other in awhile and while he thought that there was a possibility that he would have taken the chunin exams, he had doubted that the Sand would have allowed their to take part in the exams seeing as though he had just come back from his long stint of mindless killings. But then again, the last he had checked, situations were bad in the Village Hidden in the Sand and no doubt if they didn't flaunt any semblance of strength they had, their village would be going under._

 _"Why ask, you know you're always welcomed... Gaara,"_

 _The now identified Gaara only had the smallest of smiles as he stepped into the room and passed the person he had come to talk with. Naruto merely followed the boy, someone he considered one of his few friends. Silently, he watched as Gaara took a seat at the edge of Tayuya bed and Naruto idly thought of how Tayuya would react if she found sand grains littered on her sheets._

 _"It's good to see you Gaara but is there a reason you've come to see me? I didn't even know you were in the village?" Naruto asked his friend as he went on his own bed across from Gaara's position. Gaara nodded to his question and began to explain._

 _"My father has gone senile," was all Gaara said, causing Naruto to frown at his phrasing._

 _"This is something we've all known and agreed on Gaara, why bring it up now,"_

 _"Yes, this is something I have always known but I believe father as finally fallen over the edge," Gaara frowned, or at least tried to. He still wasn't good with showing his emotions through his expressions. "He intends on invading Konoha," Gaara explained, his trademark monotonic tone of voice not once wavering._

 _"An invasion?" Naruto asked and Gaara nodded. "During the Chunin Exams?" And yet again Gaara nodded along. "I agree, it seems he finally fallen off the deep edge," Naruto commented, before he frowned as he stared at Gaara. "But why now?"_

 _"Father believes that with the multitude of feudal lords that will flock to the village to view the exams, this will provide the perfect stage for the attack. The Sand as been in the red financially and with our daimyo constantly sending jobs that normally should have come to us to the Leaf village, it is inevitable that our village will soon fall into debt. He believes that if he were to attack Konoha and prove successful, then our daimyo will no doubt give us back our jobs," Gaara stated and Naruto sensed a shred of doubt in his explanation._

 _"No offense Gaara, but the Sand doesn't posses the manpower to even hope to fight Konoha to a stand-still, much less defeat them. As much as I loathe to admit it, there is a reason some still consider them the strongest even after they lost most of their man power in the Kyuubi attack," Naruto summarized with a frown. He knew Konoha wasn't the strongest village anymore but there wasn't a village around that could take them down without losing in the process as well. They were even more stubborn than Iwa when it came to warfare and that was saying much._

 _"My father also acknowledges this fact, that is why he as allied himself with the Sound village,"_

 _"Sound? I've never heard of them,"  
_

 _Gaara smiled, as though finding it amusing that he knew something that Naruto didn't. "I wouldn't expect you to hear of them," Gaara stated honestly, "But I'm sure you've heard of their leader and Otokage, Orochimaru the Sannin,"_

 _At that name Naruto scowled. He hated the snake bastard. The slimy little bastard had made a mockery of his family's heritage by manipulating one of their seals and altering it to create that abomination he called the Cursed Seal. Mentioning his name was taboo around an Uzumaki and many would pay any amount of money in the world to watch the little bastard die a harsh and painful death._

 _"Yeah, I know of the bastard," Naruto sighed as to allow the anger to filter out of his system. It would do him no good to get angry now. "I can understand why he would want to attack his home village and why he would ally with the Sand. But why tell me all of this?"_

 _Gaara sighed as he stood up, his large gourd resting at the foot of the bed. "I believe Orochimaru is in the village at this moment and will most likely target genin Sasuke Uchiha. I believe you know why I would tell you all this. I would like to avoid the needless bloodshed but my father is dead set in his ways. I've already convinced my siblings to stand down during the invasion and I would like to convince you to play a part in stopping this from escalating to abysmal levels,"_

 _"I'm saying this again Gaara, why tell me all of this? This seems like Konoha's problem, not mine. Go and take this up with the Hokage."_

 _"You know I can't. If I'm seen conversing with the Hokage, father will become suspicious and perhaps forward his plans. No, I need him unaware," he explained, "And you know as well as I do why I came to you. Tell me Naruto, are you wiling to allow your hated for a few lead to the death of many?"_

* * *

 _'Damn it Gaara, you owe me big for this,'_ Naruto thought with a frown. "Karin, Tayuya hurry! We've got a group of genin to help!" he barked as he dashed off into the direction Karin had indicated at high speeds, his teammates behind him utterly confused about his urgency but followed none the less.

* * *

Sakura thanked kami for her classmates. If it weren't for them, she doubted if she would be alive at this moment. It had all gone to hell when a disguised Orochimaru had attacked her team and separated them. Narumi was nowhere to be found and Sasuke had frozen up. When she heard Sasuke offering up their scroll, she immediately agreed to his plan, believing it was wiser to run and fight another day rather than die fighting over a scroll. But then Narumi had returned and refused to hand over the scroll, and charged head on, only to be swatted aside like a fly and rendered unconscious. To make things worse, the weirdo had bit Sasuke on the neck and done something to him that knocked him out too and left, not even sparing her a second glance. Even how bad things were, Sakura was happen that they were all still alive and safe. Then Murphy's law kicked in when three genin from the Sound village had come and demanded for her to hand Sasuke over so that they could kill him. Sh had fought as bravely as she could but she was weak, pathetically so. When all hope seemed lost, the same bushy-browed genin who had challenged Sasuke to a fight had appeared and engaged the genin team. He was doing well too but was caught by whatever weird jutsu they had used, and just like Sasuke and Narumi, he too was knocked out. She had now honestly thought that she had run out of saviors when the entirety of the rookie twelve along with the green-spandex wearing boy's team had appeared and stood in between her and the Sound team.

Things were finally looking up. The only thing that could make things better was if Sasuke-kun would wake up soon.

"Sakura," a voice groaned out.

She gasped. She could recognize that voice anywhere. "SASU-"she cut her cry of joy short when she realized his state. Weird black markings seemed to be covering half of his face and looked like dark flames consuming his pale skin. Wonky purple chakra flared and flickered around his form and everything about him seemed... off somehow. Before she could inquire about what was happening, he cut her off with a question of his own.

"Who did that to you Sakura?" he asked, referring to here haggard state. She was sweating and standing on her last legs. her qipao dress was torn in places and her once long and full rosy pink hair was short short, hacked off by her own kunai.

"I'm oka-" she tried to explain again but was cut off when Sasuke approached her again and asked who was it that attacked her. Seeing no choice in lying, she pointed out the three Sound genin to him and he snarled in their direction. For a moment, all those in clearing were caught off-guard by the venom in his voice and it was all he needed to attack. The boy with the weird arms - Zaku, she remembered - was the first to fall victim to Sasuke when he had both arms broken in grotesque fashion. The kunoichi named Kin would have been victim number two if not Sasuke was sent sprawling to the ground by a timely fist by a new comer.

"Disgusting," the person spat, and Sakura was shocked to see it was none other than the boy who Ino had agreed to never cross paths with. Behind him was his team and the girl without the glasses had a large smile on her face.

"Man, someone sure did a number on that guy," she whistled as she saw Zaku curled up in a fetal position moaning and groaning about his two broken arms.

Naruto sighed at Tayuya's words. Sometimes she could say some of the worst things at the worst times. He ignored her in favor of sizing up the others in the clearing. At one end was a team of Sound genin, no doubt working for Orochimaru. That automatically put them on his hit-list. On the other side of the clearing was the rookies from Konoha and one older team, probably only by a year or so. They were tense, he observed, probably by his sudden appearance.

"At ease Leaf nin, my business is not with you," he spared a glance at Sasuke as he struggled to his feet before adding, "At least, not yet."

His words did little to reassure the others that he wouldn't attack them, at least everyone except Mito who had relaxed under his presence. She had wanted to approach him right then and there but decided it was better until he had dealt with the berserk Sasuke. Unlike her however, Neji Hyuga had little trust for the foreign ninja. He barely trusted any foreign ninjas to begin with. That was due to an incident all those years ago when an representative of the Cloud had tried to kidnap his younger cousin Hinata. His uncle Hiashi had pursued the criminal but it was due to the quick acting of the Fourth Hokage by a well-placed Hiraishin marker that had led to the man's capture. The dispute was ended silently by the heads of each village with Cloud admitted all their wrongdoings and had to pay a hefty fine for the return of their shinobi.

Neji dreaded what would've happened had the Hokage not intervened.

"For what reason are you here, Uzumaki?" Neji asked as he activated his clan's feared kekkei genkai, the Byakugan. Naruto, for his case, remained unfazed by Neji's harsh welcome and had pointedly ignored his question as he turned to face the three Sound shinobi. The team had gathered round their injured partner, trying to somehow ease the pain of two broken arms. Wordlessly, he approached them. They noticed his march and raised their fist in defensive positions. Naruto never paused as he raised both hands and like before with his confrontation with the proctor, sleek metal rods merged from his sleeve. In the blink of an eye, both rods were sent shooting towards the genin and exploded through their chests, impaling them both. They were dead before their bodies hit the ground. Whimpers alerted him that the last of the three genin was trying his best to crawl away both without the use of his hands, it seemed a futile task. He didn't blink an eye as another rod slowly emerged from his sleeve, the black metal glistening in the sun's rays as it descended towards the handicapped boy and a loud _squelch_ signified his demise.

It was over in an instant.

The genin from Konoha were taken aback by the brutal efficiency of the killings both were knocked from their stupor when a still-berserk Sasuke shot past them in a blur and charged at Naruto when his back was turned. Whatever warnings or cries of urgency died in their throats when they realized that when Sasuke was just a few inches away from killing their impromptu savior, his body stopped. They could see the strain in his face as he tried his hardest to resist against whatever force was stopping him but his efforts were futile. He was caught and by the knowing smirk on Tayuya's face, they had a feeling who it was that had stopped him.

"I should kill you, ya know," Naruto stated honestly as he turned to face the frozen Sasuke. "It would save me a lot of effort in the future and it would foil a certain someone's plan if you were to die here and now." Sakura held here breath as she saw another of those weird rods slide out from his sleeves and was aimed at Sasuke's chest. She was about to beg for him to have mercy but released a breath she didn't know that she had held when the rod slid back into his cloak. "But as tempting as killing seems, I need you alive... for now. And as a show of good faith, I'll deal with that hickey the snake bastard left on your neck. You should be grateful,"

Naruto reached into his cloak and from it, pulled out a piece of paper and slapped into onto Sasuke's face. A few seconds after, the purple aura vanished and the weird flame-like markings retreated back into three tomoe on the arc of his neck. Sasuke slumped into unconsciousness and fell to the floor. Sakura rushed forward in fear of her teammate getting more injured but was stopped when the redhead with the flute put a hand out, barring her from approaching.

"Don't get in his way now," she warned.

"But he might hurt Sasuke-kun!"

The Uzumaki scoffed in derision. "Please pinky, if Naruto-kun wanted to hurt the little duck-butt he would've done so long ago,"

"B-B-But he said that he wanted to kill Sasuke-kun," Sakura pleaded, not seeing the girl roll her eyes had her overreaction. They were shinobi, you didn't get by without having one or two persons wanting to put your head on a silver platter.

"Relax, he's helping him. I don't know why he would be doing that but that's how Naruto is," Karin interjected but flinched when Sasuke started to shout and scream in pain. The boy was semi-conscious but it felt as though someone was trying to deep-fry his neck in a tank of hot oil. He writhed in horror and but couldn't move from his spot as Naruto kept him rooted. The only Uzumaki male in the clearing gritted his teeth as he saw the scribbles of the seal he had drawn on Sasuke's body beginning to surround the Cursed Seal mark concocted by Orochimaru. If it wasn't a seal created by such a vile man, Naruto might have commented that it was on the higher tier of Uzumaki seal standards but, while it was a hard seal to crack, there was no seal to hard for an Uzumaki and after years of research, they had created a counter seal for the mark. They had not gone public with the discovery yet and Naruto knew he ran a big risk by doing what he was currently doing, but if his plan was successful, many of the marked individuals could be free from Orochimaru's grasp and the Elemental Nations would see the demise of a certain snake bastard. But that was all banking on a big 'what-if' at the moment.

A few more moments passed with Sasuke screaming bloody murder and Tayuya having to forcefully restrain Sakura from intervening when the last kanji on Naruto's counter seal sunk into the Cursed Seal. Within a few seconds, the accursed piece of fuinjutsu had faded from the Uchiha's neck and gone for good. Sasuke fell back into a dreamless sleep while Naruto stumbled to his feet. Sweat could be seen rolling down from beneath the red bangs that hid his eyes from view and he seemed clumsy in his steps. Tayuya and Karin rushed to each side of him and steadied him before he could fall. While the Uzumakis did find to get rid of the Cursed Seal, it sis take a lot of chakra from the user and wasn't recommended to be done by anyone other than an Uzumaki or someone with large reserves of chakra. The consequences could be deadly.

"Thank you. Thank you. Thank you." Sakura repeated in a trance as she cradled Sasuke's head. She could already see the colour rushing back to his face and the he seemed a lot healthier than he did when they had finished fighting Orochimaru. She didn't care what her sensei was talking about when he said the Uzumakis were dangerous but so far they had only helped them.

"Don't go thanking me yet," he warned as he neared her with Tayuya and Karin supporting him. He eyed her curiously, which put all the genin on edge as he did so. With a tilt of a head, he asked, "What type of scroll does your team have?"

"Wait... what?!" Sakura blurted out, surprised. But then she remembered the objective of the test. It seemed the Uzumakis had not intervened out of the goodness of their hearts but for the possible gain of a scroll. She should've seen it coming and could refuse to give them it but they had saved them and had gotten rid of whatever Orochimaru had placed on Sasuke. She was in their debt and she knew it. With a defeated sigh and downcast expression, she told them that they had a heaven scroll. She fished the scroll out of Sasuke's pouch and was about to hand it over to them when Ino stepped between the two.

"What the hell are you doing Forehead?!" she asked surprised, "You need those to pass the test, you can't give it those guys!"

"Shut up Ino, this is my decision! Narumi is out for who knows how long and Sasuke-kun is injured. If it weren't for those guys he'd probably be dead by now!" She fired back.

"Who cares, they're our enemy!" she responded. Sakura was her friend and Sasuke, her dream guy. There was no way she would allow them to drop out at this stage of the exams, not with so much time left. It was only the first day. They should wait and recuperate before they go hunting for the earth scroll they needed. Before she could tell Sakura her advise, Naruto had cut in with a vicious snarl.

"Enemies, huh? Even after all these years, you ungrateful Leaf-nins don't know how to treat us Uzumakis with respect after we've helped you. I guess history does repeat itself!" he snapped bitterly, leaving the Konoha genin, especially Mito curious as to what he meant by 'history repeating itself'. But before they could ask him, he reached into his cloak and threw something at Sakura. She looked at it and realized it was an earth scroll, the one they needed. She looked at him in surprise but flinched back when she realized his teammates were glaring daggers at Ino. "My team and I already have the scrolls we need to pass and found an extra earth scroll. We should just leave you high and dry but against my better judgement, I'm giving it to you. But just like your little friend said, from this point on we're enemies and if we ever meet again, you better pray to ground I'm in the mood to give out mercy. _Or else..._ " he finished off the statement by nodding into the direction of the dead Sound ninjas.

Needless to say, they got the hint.

He and team were walking away when Mito called out to them. "Wait!" she shouted. "Look... we may have gotten off on the wrong foot... but let's start over. My last name might be Namikaze but my mother's name is Kushina Uzumaki. She's a member of your clan and that makes us family. Right?

That was not the right thing to say.

Naruto turned back more angry than ever. How dare she insinuate that they were family? That they were members of the same clan? That ship had sailed years ago when Kushina had done what she did and there was no way in hell he would considerate them family, even if they had Uzumaki blood running through they veins. Earlier, Naruto had said he hadn't retained the Uzumaki temper but he was dead wrong. Sure, he was harder to rile up but when he was angry, nothing could stop him.

"Don't you dare say that again! Not after what your mother did. Listen to me girl, there is no way in hell our clan will ever acknowledge you as family! Your mother betrayed the clan at the highest level and ran off like a coward! You are nothing more than an outsider, a mere imitation of a true Uzumaki. You'll never be one of us!" he ranted, not giving one flying shit as to how badly he had hurt her feelings. When he left, Mito fell to the floor in a heap and cried her eyes out, he brother giving her a hug while glaring at the space Naruto had once occupied. When she had finally finished, the rest of the rookie teams stayed behind while Team 9 went ahead.

They would camp out here until Narumi and Sasuke awoke, then, they would head to the tower.


	4. Chapter 4

**Okay, it seems I have gotten a lot of good reviews from my last update so thank you. I truly do enjoy writing this story because it is one of the few that brings in the Uzumaki clan surviving the attack on their village. And a few of you - based on your reviews - have already guessed Naruto's father so kudos to you guys. For those you haven't, the wait will soon be over, the reveal will happen right now.**

 **This chapter is more of a peek into a bit of Kushina's past and as to why she is in the Leaf village than actually progression of the story and in this chapter, Naruto's father makes his debut.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

* * *

Naruto stood at the helm of his group, his crimson hair hiding his headband and eyes from all those who dared to look at him. His skin was pale as the moon and his large dark cloak was utterly spotless. The boy seemed unfazed as he observed each and all shinobi in the arena-like room in which the genin were gathered. Or at least that was what most assumed he was doing based on the fact that his head was shifting from left to right ever so slightly. They couldn't really assume anything about the young genin seeing as though he was a mystery to all but his teammates. Flanking each side of him were genin teams that had passed the Second Test - accounting to a small total of 8 teams, his included. Most looked roughed up or fatigued, a stark contrast to their Uzumaki counterparts. But given their different performances, that was to be expected.

It was just under 70 minutes since the start of the Second Exams when the Uzumaki team had made it to the tower, both scrolls needed in hand. The chunin that was summoned was, needless to say, given the shock of his life when he realized that they had finished the exams in a record time. Gossip like this couldn't be stopped from spreading like wildfire and in a quarter of an hour, most jonin and chunin alike were talking about the Uzumaki trio in a frenzy. But that wasn't where the excitement had ended. It seemed that exactly 27 minutes later, the trio from the Sand village - the Kazekage's children if rumors were to be believed - had finished the exams as well. It was preposterous! Two teams from foreign villages had somehow eclipsed the old record of the Second exams while their own were still in the thick of things. These kids were monsters!

Right now, it didn't look so well for the Leaf Village.

Good news had finally arrived when it was spread that a single Leaf team had made it to the tower on the third day. Apparently, it was the Team 9 - or Team Gai, as known to others - that had passed with two days to spare. It was a welcome sight to the home crowd to see that they still had active participants. And it was only a day later when even bigger news came, and this time to the joy of the Konoha shinobi force. With only a day to spare, Teams 7, 8, 10 and 11 had all walked into the tower as one unit. They looked weary an fatigued but they had done it, all the rookie teams had passed the exams. The last team to arrive had done so mere minutes before the deadline was called. Team Kabuto had passed as well, but only by the skin of their teeth. It seemed things were finally looking up for the Village Hidden in the Leaves. Out of the teams to have passed the exams, six of them were from Konoha, giving them a six-to-two advantage against the other villages.

Minato internally mulled over this fact as he gazed at all the genin standing before him. Some were skittish and looking ready to bolt while some were barely hiding the excitement for the new challenge. He had already explained to them the reason for a preliminary round to commence and was now waiting for their proctor to make himself known so the fighting could commence. His gaze drifted to the viewing balcony where the jonin sensei of each team waited. Oddly enough, his number count reached to only seven. A quick scan revealed that the missing sensei was that of the Uzumaki's. Now that he thought about it, he had not heard or seen wind of the their sensei. Had the team traveled alone perhaps? That was highly unlikely but it was the only answer he could produce as to why the team was without their sensei. He shrugged the stray thought to the back of his mind, noting it as something to investigate later. Behind him was a collection of individuals. Anko was there - being the proctor for the previous test, it was expected that she would be here. Ibiki Morino was here as well, the man idly gazing around him as though uninterested of the inner dealings of the exams. Random faces of various jonin and chunin who had helped in the preparation process of the exams were present as well as they stood at attention. But perhaps most odd of them all was the red-haired woman who was currently having an intense stare-off with the Uzumakis.

He sighed. Kushina had practically bent him over his desk when she had demanded that he allowed her to be there for the preliminary rounds. He knew that she was concerned about the well-being of their children but he also knew that the kids weren't her only reason for wanting to be here. No, he knew that the honor of her presence was given to the leader of the Uzumaki team. He had figured out the boy's lineage the minute he had laid eyes on him. _'Naruto... that's his name,'_ Minato reminded himself. This Naruto character was the spitting image of his father in his younger days. A proud and powerful shinobi of the Whirlpool Village. Minato thought with a frown the last time he had since the boy's father. They had not parted on friendly terms.

Despite their different origins, they had bonded over a mutual goal, to get stronger to protect the ones they loved. Their villages hated each other and during the last war, had been at each others throats each time they encountered the other on the battle field. Yet, Minato could proudly have said that he felt no closer to anyone than he did to Naruto's father. He was like the brother he never had, and Minato knew that the feeling was mutual. Each time they fought, entire landscapes were turned to rubble yet they had always left with a smile on their face. Their relationship was one that the exuberant Gai would proclaim as one between eternal rivals.

He grimaced at that. Perhaps they were too alike. Both had same goals and had same backstories. And it was needless to say, both had the same taste in women.

He remembered clearly about what had happened their last meeting. It was the fight of the decade, one both men would go back to say as their most important battle. They had fought that day for a prize far greater than victory for their village.

They had fought for the one they both loved.

Minato had won and in the wake of the clash, a heartbroken man was left to pick up the pieces.

Yes, they had parted on bad terms but Minato remembered the man like it was yesterday.

His friend,

His brother,

His rival.

Nagato Uzumaki.

* * *

Kushina bit her lower lips and fought against the feelings of guilt that threatened to bubble to the surface. She was aware of Minato's questioning gaze and that had only made her feel worse. She felt... dirty. Tainted even. But yet, she couldn't bring herself to tear her eyes away from the boy that stood only a few feet in front of her. His hair was matted down and he styled the red fringes to reach the bridge of his nose.

 _'Just like he did,'_ she thought solemnly.

She had little doubt about who the boy's father was, but her entire being down to her tried to deny it at every turn. Each time she tried to face the truth of the situation, jealousy poured into her veins with the sting of molten lava. But then shame would arise, scolding her for her thoughts. Like a beating drum, the accusations were steady and constant.

 _She_ was the one who had done wrong.

 _She_ was the one who betrayed him.

 _She_ was the one who ended it all.

 _She_ was the one who had left.

It was her, not him. It was all her fault. But despite that, she couldn't stop the pangs of anger that stabbed her like a kunai when she thought of him being happy without her. She couldn't stop the rush of jealousy that pricked her skin like a thousand senbon needles each time a vision of him with another woman invaded her mind. He was meant to be hers and her s alone, but she had betrayed him and their home with her actions and she could vividly recall his heartbroken face when she left in Minato's arms.

But looking at Naruto, she was reminded of the days when she was younger. Of the days when everything revolved around him. The jokes they shared. The pranks they pulled. Naruto wiped away all the bad memories and left her only with the good ones. They came and went in a rush of emotions. He reminded her of the days she had wasted away in _his_ arms, just laughing at whatever he said. He reminded her of the countless times he had brought her home on his back when she had pushed herself to the limit and couldn't even walk.

Her reminded her of that blissful night of passion before the world came crashing down on their heads.

But most of all, he reminded her of what she had lost.

Her friend,

Her lover,

her ex-finance.

Nagato Uzumaki.

* * *

In the Village Hidden in the Whirlpools, a lone figure sat behind the office with a small scroll in hand. His rippled gaze skimmed the entirety of the message before he rolled it back into to place. With a flare of chakra, the scroll was engulfed in a bright blue flame and the ashes scattered into the wind. _'So Orochimaru is in Konoha,'_ the figure thought as he rose from his chair and walked towards the center of the room. His attire was hidden by a long dark cloak embroidered with the insignia of multiple red clouds. He made several hand signs and within moments time, he was joined by two more figures, each wearing a cloak similar to his. On the left was a woman. She had pale blue hair and amber eyes that seemed to glow in the shadows that shrouded the room. A lone origami rose perched proudly in her hair. On the right was a man. Orange spiky hair spilled out and sharp brown eyes that twinkled with mischief. He too wore a cloak like the others in the room and strapped to his back was a large sword.

"It seems that the snake has returned to the Great Tree to see it burn," the first figure spoke cryptically, yet the two he had summoned somehow understood him. They nodded along with his words. "My decision to send Naruto to that village seem to produce more than originally thought. we have to hasten our plans. Be ready, we will be leaving by day's end,"

Both figures nodded and in the blink of an eye, they were both gone.

 _'It seems the world will come to know the true power of God and his Wrath,'_

* * *

 **Short, yes. But don't be so disappointed, the next chapter will have the fights of the preliminaries so just hold your horses for a little while. I'm just setting the stage for a much bigger event and explaining the nature of relationship for all those involved.**

 **On a side note, an idea popped into mind of writing a story where Naruto is civilian-born, i.e. not born from a clan nor from shinobi parents. In this world he would have two merchants as parents and he wouldn't be a jinchuriki. Tell me what do you think about that idea.**

 **Signing out.**

\- **Gregorybryce9**


	5. Chapter 5

**I guess that the first thing I should do is apologize to you all for the late updates. Honestly, I'm not sure if my updates are going to be as frequent as I hoped but I'll try my best ya know. Another thing that I should address is the issue of Akatsuki some of you might have:**

 **1) Obito Uchiha... is dead. Accept it. You might not like it but that's the way it is. It might come as a shocker to you but PEOPLE DIE WHEN THEY ARE KILLED... yeah I know, what a shocker!... I mean come on, half his body was crushed including half his brain... That's a death sentence right there bruh!**

 **2)Madara Uchiha... yep, dead-er than a door-nail. Screw sharingan and its hax. I mean come on... having the ability to distort reality all because you have a bad case of pink eye! That's like a get out of jail free card for any and everything. So while I believe Madara made for an amazing antagonist with the fact that he sort of fought for a world of peace(sorta..), I don't agree with the way they brought him back.**

 **And how these factors affect my story... read and find out!**

* * *

Naruto had to hold back a sigh as he watched the fights occur down on the ground level of the massive structure erected with in the heart of the Forest of Death. While he knew he was above the chunin pay-grade when it came to raw skill, he felt rather bored at the way things were occurring. With the impending threat of Orochimaru and his father's own arrival, he felt slight tremors that he'd only experienced when his father decided to take him seriously in their spars. He was revving for a good fight. Despite his stoic outlook, Naruto would admit that he was a bit of a battle junkie. He loved the challenge of fighting difficult opponents. So it was without a doubt that he was disappointed with the bland fights that were occurring right now.

He did however sighed aloud this time as the masked Konoha genin screamed in pain as he was launched into the wall. The boy - whose name he honestly couldn't care enough to remember - was mediocre at best and the only thing that could be considered interesting about him was the fact that he could steal chakra using his hands. A one-trick pony was what he was. The boy slumped to his knees, a groan escaping through his busted lips as Tayuya gave him a sharp kick to the head.

"Don't tell me that's all ya got shithead," his teammate taunted as she towered over the downed shinobi. The kunoichi had a large grin on her face as she strolled lethargically over to the boy. There was no pep or urgency in her step. She knew just as well as everyone else that the fight was over, but for the sake of simply embarrassing her opponent, the girl chose to draw the match out as soon as possible.

"I actually expected more from you Konoha ninjas... " she trailed off as another vicious kick caught the boy in his ribs, causing him to groan in pain. She lifted him to his feet by his neck, bringing his face close to hers as she stage-whispered, making sure all those in the arena could hear her. "But I guess you shitty tree-huggers aren't as tough as you make yourselves to be." That earned her a few harsh glares from the crowd but Tayuya simply ignored them with a loud laugh. She ended the match with a chop to the neck, allowing the boy to fade into unconsciousness.

So far, this was the third match in the preliminary rounds and Naruto was bored out of his mind. The first match had immediately seen Karin going up against the Akimichi of the Konoha group, with Karin gaining a easy win against the large boy. While he may have packed a mean punch, the boy could not lay a finger on the Uzumaki girl. She was far too fast and agile for his large frame to lock on to the girl. It had ended quickly when Karin had restrained him with her _chakra chains_. He knew that based on the looks of astonishment on the older shinobi faces that they had not expected someone her age to have mastered the fearsome Uzumaki technique to such a degree and with such fluidity. That would no doubt create some stirs in her future matches.

The second match had seen the Uchiha taking on the second member of the Konoha masked trio with it ending pathetically quick. The black-haired teen was on him like spots on a leopard and gave him little to no chance to do anything. Truly, it was a pathetic display on the boy (whose name, just like his teammate, was not worth remembering). He could only stand there and be pounded into the ground as the younger brother of the prodigious Itachi Uchiha demolished him with a fearsome taijutsu display. If that was the height of the masked boy's abilities, it was a miracle he had even made it this far.

The only interesting thing to happen was when that Kabuto boy had forfeited. He had wanted to see what the boy was truly capable of.

"The next match will be between TenTen from Konoha and Temari from Suna. Will both combatants make their way down to the center of the arena," the proctor stated. The man was sickly and looked on the verge of being bedridden. He talked a lot slower than most and had to pause in between words to cough. _'Someone should seriously get that man to a medic,,'_ Naruto thought as the man came down with another fit of cough. Despite his concern for the man's health, he hid the smallest of smiles beneath the high collar of his cloak. He remembered his first meeting with the girl, and recalled vividly her proficiency in her wind techniques. Truly the girl was a dangerous opponent for any one to deal with.

 _'Maybe... I won't be so bored after all,'_

* * *

Temari sauntered down the stairs with a smirk on her lips. She was confident that this was going to be an comfortable victory for her. Her battle fan was strapped against her back; her fingers itching to unfold them to unleash a world of hurt. Her opponent took the opposite stairs. The Suna kunoichi would easily admit that she had been hoping to face off against the brown haired girl from Konoha. There was something about her that made Temari believe that she was a serious kunoichi, unlike the majority of fan-girls that you would find.

Yep, Temari was looking forward to this fight.

She reached the proctor about the same time as TenTen. Both girls ignored the proctor's words as they sized their counterparts up for the fight. Temari had both the size and reach advantage over the shorter girl but Tenten's figure made her the more agile of the two. Temari noticed that her clothes were a lot 'free-er' than her own. _'Maybe a taijutsu specialist... '_ the Kazekage's daughter thought, _'... or something that involves easy movement,'_

TenTen on the other hand made quick notice of the large object strapped to the girl's back. _'I don't know what that thing is but no doubt it's a type of weapon. Used for bludgeoning maybe? I won't take any chances now so I'll have to put some space between us.'_ the female of Team Gai deduced with a small smile, _'But that works in favor for me in the end.'_

"... are you both ready?" the man asked breaking them both from their silent observations. His eyes were glancing from one girl to the next, seeking conformation to begin the match. They nodded at the man and with a shout and lowering of his hands, the match had begun.

TenTen went on the offensive at the drop of a hat. She hurled six shuriken at her opponent, each sailing towards a vital spot, while she leaped backwards to gain some distance. Temari showed no signs of preparing to dodge as the projectiles neared and smiled smugly as the weapons sailed passed her without a hit. TenTen brows raised to the top of her forehead; a shocked expression on her face.

 _'W-W-Wha- How? I missed her!? But I never miss.'_ TenTen thought before furrowing her brows and gritting her teeth. _'That's right, I never miss. She must of done something.'_ Determined to find out what it was the Sand kunoichi had done to evade her attacks, she repeated the same actions again, watching closely as the shuriken neared her target. So focused on the projectiles trajectory, she missed the faintest of twitches in Temari's fingers as the shuriken veered off course, embedding themselves into the ground with heavy _thunks._

Temari chuckled. "My my, what bad aim you have~" she taunted in a sing-song tone. _'Based on the fact that she hasn't decided to attack me up close shows that she's a long distance fighter... more than likely a weapons specialist.'_ Temari reached for her fan, smiling as she did.

 _'This match... is over,'_

* * *

 **With the crowd**

* * *

Neji narrowed his gaze slowly as he watched the match. Many couldn't see it or chose to label as merely a trick of the light but he swore he saw a slight... _distortion_ in the air whenever TenTen's weapons neared the foreign nin. He had no idea what she was doing but he knew that she was employing some sort of technique to veer the assortment of shuriken and kunai off course. He gripped the railing as another hail of shuriken were sent wide while the pig-tailed girl only smirked in triumph at TenTen's increasing frustration.

"Come on TenTen!" his evergreen teammate roared. "You can do it! Don't give up!"

The rest of the genin gave their own form of encouragements to the kunoichi. Honestly, Neji hadn't had the most sparkling impression of the rookies. But despite that, they had stuck together when they were caught in the depths of the forest and stood together to fight off the few teams that had tried to pick off the rookies. He knew he wasn't the most social of persons, something he attributed to his upbringing in the Hyuuga clan. But he considered the rookies his friends... or at the very least acquaintances. So while he might of found their shouts tedious and annoying, he appreciated the effort and belief they had in his teammate.

"She's going to lose,"

Neji turned to face whoever it was that said that and was surprised to meet the stony expression of the wife of the hokage. He had never spoken with the woman personally but knew that such a subdued look did not belong on her face. She hadn't noticed him looking at her or if she did she made no comment about it.

His sensei made a disgruntled sound at the woman's declaration, an uneasy expression on his face. It was an unknown fact that the former Uzumaki was a battle genius in a sense. Unlike her husband, the red-head had not hit the S-rank barrier, having had retired from shinobi lifestyle when she was still ranked as an A-rank. However, she had been renowned for her extensive knowledge in fighting styles and her input regarding a fight were not to be ignored. Gai knew as much, having seen the woman in her prime yet couldn't accept the fact that she saw no chance for his student to emerge victorious.

"Are you sure about that senpai? TenTen is a strong kunoichi in her own right. I am positive that she can win this match!"

Kushina sighed at the man's enthusiasm. Sure, she had a special place in her heart for the green-loving man. She had watched the man grow from an awkward boy with zero talent in the shinobi arts into a seasoned and elite jounin. Plus, with the man's one-sided rivalry with the lone remaining student on her husband's team, she had gotten used to the man's eccentricities over the years. But while she admired his habit of looking on the brighter side of all situations, she noticed his optimism often blinded him from seeing the obvious. It wasn't anything malicious in nature but could be dangerous in his line of work.

"TenTen is no doubt a strong girl but the fact is that she's up against someone whose abilities completely nullifies hers. If it anyone else then might have stood a better chance." Kushina explained with a heavy sigh.

"Surely TenTen can pull through?" Neji half-asked, half-told the woman and broke his gaze only to watch her teammate being sent ten feet into the air by a powerful wind-based attack. He winced as numerous cuts began to litter her body, some deep enough to draw blood. As his teammate fell, Neji's temper flared to life as he watched the Sand kunoichi prepared to catch her with fan. He was just about to climb over the railings to catch her when her body lurched to a stop and froze... in mid-air.

Neji's gaze immediately flickered down to Temari, half-expecting to see her to be somehow responsible for the apparent levitation. But the girl was just as surprised as everyone else were with the floating girl. TenTen herself was unconscious so she was not the one responsible. A sharp gasp caught his attention and he followed the unwavering gaze of the hokage's wife that led him over towards the mysterious team from the Village Hidden on the Eddies.

Internally, Naruto was grinning at the new found attention on him. When the girl was falling, he had immediately stuck an hand out, halting her descent using his doujutsu. What he was doing now was a calculated risk and would bring him unsavory attention that he no doubt will be dealing with for the time to come but he had seen an opportunity and decided to capitalize on it. If the traitorous snake was still nearby, then perhaps the reveal of a tool stronger than the sharingan would shift his attention away from the Uchiha and onto him. And any attack on his person would give his father unprecedented freedom to do whatever he wanted with the pale face bastard in case the Leaf village demanded repercussions.

No doubt that the _woman_ would be able to recognized the technique he was using and if the narrowed gaze of the blond kage was anything to go by, he too had realized what was going on. Again, he had to remind himself that this was a calculated risk. The knowledge of his powers was a well-known secret exclusive to Uzumaki kin. Not even Gaara, his only friend outside the village, was privy to this detail. Sure, many had suspected it, especially with the way he hid his eyes away using the fringes of his hair but no one had come close enough to truly confirm if it was true.

Until now...

He grinned outwardly as he raised his gaze , revealing the rippled concentric circles that laid over amethyst eyes...

... Naruto Uzumaki possessed the rinnegan ...

* * *

 **Meanwhile in Uzushiogakure...**

* * *

Gale Uzumaki was a well respected man within the confines of the Eddy village. Being on the oldest active shinobi, the man was a source of well of knowledge and techniques that many would die for. The tall shinobi had served his village for numerous decades, with being one of the few active shinobi who was on the front lines as the Uzumakis repelled the attack of three major shinobi villages which was known to most as the 'Battle of Whirlpool'. The mountain of a man stood at an impressive height over 6 feet and with his large blade strapped to his back, he made quite the intimidating figure. Yet, oddly enough, he was one of the least feared individuals among his kin. Why was this so?

Perhaps it had to do with his utter obsession with every and anything that involved Naruto Uzumaki.

Maybe a bit of background information is needed. You see, Gale Uzumaki had built quite a fearsome reputation as a merciless jounin during the Second Shinobi War and had earned the moniker as the _Bane of the Elemental Nations_. His skill when wielding his massive blade Banryū was comparable to the Seven Swordsmen of Kiri. The man was on top of the world and at one point was slated to receive the title of Uzukage. That was until he ran into the likes of Kumo's Kinkaku Force. He had fought tooth and nail against the men and women from Kumo but inevitably had grown weary from combat. In a last ditch attempt, the man had rigged multiple explosive seals to take out the Kumo nin. The resulting explosions had done the trick and with many wounded, the Kinkaku had retreated believing him to be dead. Dragging himself back to the village of his allegiance, the man was immediately sidelined and put on reserves. He had overestimated the blast prowess of his seals and the resulting injuries had permanently damaged his chakra coils. With no chakra, his career seemed all but over. or so he thought. On the orders of his current kage, the man was pulled back into the shinobi lifestyle as a private mentor in kenjutsu for his son and clan heir of the Uzumaki clan.

It was job that he prided himself on and took very seriously.

Maybe _too_ seriously.

Needless to say, the man was obsessed with his young charge.

So when he had heard that Orochimaru of the Sannin was within striking distance of the boy he regarded as his young master, he had raced towards the Uzukage's office with a trail of dust behind him.

"YOUNG MASTER!" the man bellowed as he raced up the flight of the stairs. Many of the ninjas going to and fro within the large building could only sigh as the man blazed pass them before shaking their heads and continuing on their way. This was not an uncommon sight in Uzushiogakure.

Nagato's door was blown off its hinges as the man burst inside. He was sweaty and panting, but the fire in his eyes were blazing like an inferno. He disregarded the small mass of shinobi in the room as he leaped towards his leaders desk. "Uzukage-sama, I've received word that Orochimaru was spotted in Konoha. Is it true? Is the young master safe? Can I go and exterminate the bastard for threatening the young master?" the man asked in spit-rapid succession.

Nagato sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose. Why did always have to deal with the crazy ones? "Calm down Gale, there is no need to worry,"

That was the wrong thing to say.

"No need? NO NEED?!" the man exploded, "how could you say such a thing?! The young master is away in the Leaf's territory, Uzukage-sama . Who knows what those blasted tree-huggers could be doing right now. For all we know..."

Nagato sighed as Gale rambled on about his delusions, all at the same time crying comical rivers of tears. Again, why did he always get the crazy ones.

"As I said before Gale, there is no need to worry as myself, you and all the others in this room will be leaving for Konoha immediately." No sooner had he said those words did Gale leap to his feet, all evidence of his tears gone.

"Thank you Uzukage-sama. I will prepare at once! Worry not young master, for Gale is on his way" the man shouted and ran from the room in an impressive show of speed. A few moments after he left, an orange-haired man chuckled.

"Do you think we should warn Naruto that he's coming?"

"I don't see a reason why we should Yahiko," Nagato answered. The man's laugh only increased in volume.

"You're a cruel father my friend,"

Back in Konoha, Naruto felt a cold feeling run down is spine. _'I hope everything will be okay,'_

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 **There you have it. A little over 3k words. Not as much as I usually right and it might be a bit disappointing seeing that I took this long to update but I hope you like it none the less. Shout out to Lockdown00 for the permission to use his OC Gale Uzumaki. I hope I wrote him just as you had imagined him my friend. Don't be afraid to ask any questions you might have about the story, I'm here to answer any queries you might have about the story.**

 **Favourite, Follow and Review**

 **-Grgeorybryce9**


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